Windhoek — A Crowd of Keetmanshoop residents yesterday morning looted tonnes of wine from a truck belonging to Anderson Transport.

The people flocked to the scene, some 20 kilometres north of Keetmanshoop on the B1 road, where the truck's trailer had caught fire. The truck driver, Ashley Kooper, told The Namibian that he stopped the truck at around 04h00 after he had smelled burning rubber.

He was driving from Cape Town to Windhoek "When I noticed that the tyre was in flames, I tried with the assistance of some motorists to extinguish the fire," Kooper said. "Another tyre burst into flames after the motorists left," Kooper added.

He said he could not extinguish the fire that time, and called the Keetmanshoop Fire Brigade, which put out the fire. Kooper estimated the value of the damaged and looted wine at close to N$200 000.