Commuters watched in disbelief yesterday morning as carjackers made off with a Range Rover in the middle of rush-hour traffic, bundling the terrified driver into the back seat.
The attack took place in pouring rain on the busy A5 motorway, running from Cascais to Lisbon.
A Renault 19 purposely ‘touched’ the Range Rover in semi-stationary traffic, hard enough for the driver to exit the vehicle to assess the damage.
The minute he did this, two men leapt out of the Renault, bundled the driver back into his car, and allegedly robbed him of his wallet.
As one of the men then took off at high speed in the stolen vehicle – using the hard shoulder – the Range Rover owner “experienced minutes of terror” before taking advantage of a lapse in his assailants’ attention to leap from the vehicle and land back on the tarmac.
Drivers who had been watching the whole spectacle unable to intervene rushed to the man’s aid, and he was later taken to hospital.
The carjackers meantime continued to weave their way along the hard shoulder eventually crashing and being ‘rescued’ by their accomplice in the Renault.
PJ forensic experts are now understood to be examining the Range Rover in the hope that it will lead to evidence on the carjackers’ identity.
The incident, reported by the national press, took place at 8.30am on Wednesday.
