Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

An anti-poaching operation led by the Defence Force in Paternoster went disastrously wrong when angry crowds turned on armed soldiers and police, forcing a helicopter to airlift personnel from the beach and others to flee in their cars, according to eyewitnesses.

The drama began on Saturday morning when a light aircraft had flown at "low level" around fishing boats off Paternoster and the village, said Michael Hainebach of Cape Town, one of a group renting a cottage overlooking the beach last weekend.

"Then around lunchtime, as several small fishing boats were heading for shore, a large red and white helicopter suddenly appeared and started circling the boats still at sea and those that had already landed."

As Hainebach and his friends watched, the helicopter landed on the beach.

"Nine men in military uniforms with automatic rifles and what appeared to be three men dressed in luminous orange and yellow traffic police bibs, spewed from the chopper and confronted the fishermen hauling in the boats. And they were joined on the beach by two official-looking cars," Hainebach said.

At the same time the helicopter took off and began passes over several boats that were approaching the shore, with the crews frantically throwing their catches overboard.

By this time a crowd of angry locals had begun gathering on the beach and hurling abuse at the authorities.

And several men in a boat that had just beached grabbed some bags and boxes and raced off into the village, according to another eyewitness, Forrest Holleman.

By this stage more than 100 people had gathered on the beach and were becoming increasingly angry. "Many were shouting obscenities and menacing threats," said Holleman.

The helicopter crew, realising forces on the beach were in danger, landed and plucked the embattled raiders to safety.

Mareka Brandt, spokeswoman for Marine and Coastal Management, said the raid at Paternoster was part of a joint anti-crime operation involving the agency's inspectors, the SANDF, local police and the traffic department.

A total of 17 arrests had been made.

"According to a report we have received, our men pulled out before anything went wrong," she said.