Four men on motorcycles on Sunday attacked a taxi driver and his three passengers on Mandela Avenue, shooting at him and tossing him and the others out of the car before two of the men sped away in it.

The attack and carjacking left the driver nursing a graze to the side of the head from one of the shots fired.

The man, Krishna Tarchand, age 34, and of Parika, East Bank Essequibo, said that he was returning from Berbice on Sunday when at about 2.30 pm, four men, two of each on a motorcycle, pulled up alongside him while he had stopped close to the traffic light approaching the junction of Mandela Avenue and Homestretch Avenue.

He said that the car, a light-green Toyota Carina 212 with registration number HB 2028 has not been recovered.

According to the man, he heard sounds, which he first thought to be a blown tyre, only to realise that the men had been shooting at the car. He said that at that point, one of the bikes rode up ahead of the car and positioned itself in front of the vehicle while the other stayed behind.

The pillion passenger of the bike at the front of the car then whipped out a handgun and fired a shot in the man's direction through the front windshield. According to Tarchand he quickly tried to evade the trajectory of the bullet, but was not quick enough to avoid being grazed. The man was able to observe that both of the pillion passengers had handguns and none of the four men wore masks.

The passengers in the car - two women and a child - started screaming. One of the gunmen continued to train his weapon on the driver while telling him and the others to exit the car. Tarchand said that the men relieved one of the woman passengers of her shoulder bag and a chain that she was wearing. The passengers of the car had hired Tarchand to transport them to Berbice and back.

The man said that after that, the two pillion riders got off the bikes and went into the car, turning it around in the direction of the sea wall and driving off while the men on the bikes, which the man thinks is a Honda CG 125, rode off. Many of these bikes are seen in the city's streets without number plates on them.

Tarchand said that while he and the passengers were going through their ordeal, persons passing in buses did nothing. But one man who saw Tarchand bleeding from his wound stopped and offered to take him and the others to the Woodlands Hospital where he obtained a medical certificate. He then went the Brickdam Police Station and gave his statement. Even with the wound, the man was able to walk about on his own though the region of the wound has some swelling.

According to the man, he bought the car some three months ago from BM Soat Auto Sales for $2.1M and that he still owes for it. (Johann Earle)