Ludenburg - Three men were arrested while trying to break into a bank in Lydenburg in the early hours of Friday morning, Mpumalanga police said.
Police responded to a complaint about the alarm at the bank going off when they caught the men red-handed, Captain Manie van Zyl said.
Three others waiting in Toyota and Tata bakkies, the getaway cars, managed to escape.
During the arrest police found a grinder, a drilling machine, a generator, and a 9mm pistol.
The Tata bakkie was found later abandoned at Kellysville, outside Lydenburg. Police were searching for the other three robbers. The three arrested men would appear in the Lydenburg Magistrate's Court on Monday. - Sapa