WATCH | Robbers steal entire ATM from an Eastern Cape SPAR

Seven gun-toting robbers walk into a SPAR supermarket.

Shoppers fall to their knees, then crawl away frantically to seek cover.

One of the gunmen, wearing a cap, calmly directs a bakkie with an open tailgate as it reverses inside the store.

This is how a brazen daylight ATM robbery played out at Lady Frere in the Eastern Cape early on Wednesday.

Uncharacteristically, no explosives were used to crack open the machine which, incidentally, had just been filled up with cash.

Instead, the robbers simply walked up to the machine, unplugged it and loaded the whole thing into the back of their getaway bakkie.

The store manager, Vuyo Mbimbi, said seven men had barged into the shop, situated in Fletcher Street, just after 8am.

“They pointed guns at the customers who were in the shop and then unplugged the ATM situated inside the shop, before loading it into a bakkie that they drove into the shop,” Mbimbi said.

According to police, the machine, owned by Cash Paymaster Services, is used by the South African Social Security Agency to pay out grants.

Shortly before the robbery, it was loaded with about R450 000. 

Mbimbi said police were called to the scene and added that nobody had been injured.

Police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni said that at least one shot was fired inside the store during the robbery.

A case of business robbery is under investigation.