Four elderly walkers have been robbed of their cellphones, backpacks and car keys while walking in the "De Hel" area of the Constantia Green Belt.

The thickly wooded area is at the top end of the popular Green Belt, just below Constantia Nek and between Southern Cross Drive and Constantia Main Road. It is not part of the Table Mountain National Park, but is under the control of the City of Cape Town.

The party was held up Wednesday morning by two men armed with knives. The four were reportedly pushed around by the two robbers but were not injured.

Hilton Blumeris, the national park's head of security who has been leading the hunt for the gang responsible for numerous mugging incidents on the mountain recently, said the two robbers might be members of this gang.

He said the national park team was patrolling the area between Constantia Nek and Kirstenbosch intensively, following several incidents in this area recently, and it was possible their security operations had now forced the robbers to seek targets lower down off the mountain.

This article originally published on Page 1 of the Cape Argus on Feb 8, 2007

Source: www.iol.co.za