WATCH | Armed men drag student by the hair in brazen hijacking

A 19-year-old student from Namibia is shaken but determined to continue her studies after being shot at and dragged by the hair while being hijacked in Randburg, Johannesburg.

The young woman was on her way to visit family friends when she was ambushed at the gates of a security complex at the weekend.

The Namibian student has been in South Africa since January.

Ester van Rensburg, the family friend who was being visited, said the student was studying ophthalmology at the University of Johannesburg.

Van Rensburg said the driver stopped at security gates at the entrance to a residential  complex about 4pm on Saturday.

"There  have been many burglaries in the past in our complex, so we put up a huge security gate and cameras at our entrance."

"In the footage you can see she pulls into the gate and reaches for her phone to phone us to open the gate for her," said Van Rensburg.

Her husband went out to see if their visitor had arrived but returned to say she had not.

Van Rensburg said the alleged hijackers drove into the back of the woman's car.

"It made a hell of a noise and she saw the guys jumping out and thought they wanted to come and say sorry. Her doors were locked. They tried and wanted her to open the door and she didn't want to.

"She started screaming in the car."

Van Rensburg said a person about to exit the complex saw what was happening.

"He started hooting and she also started hooting. The neighbours came running out and then that guy shot through her window. Fortunately she wasn't harmed."

She was dragged out of her Volkswagen Polo by the hair and the hijackers left with her car.

"All the neighbours responded immediately and tracking was amazing. We could see the registration number on the footage and that is when we alerted everyone.

Van Rensburg said her car was found within 40 minutes.

"It is just her phone that was missing, but fortunately her laptop with all her assignments and student stuff and purse were in the boot and they didn't take that.

"She was actually okay on Saturday but last night [Sunday] was very bad for her, but she got a lot of support now and we are organising counselling for her.

The Van Rensburg family had since taken the student in.

"She is a strong girl and I took her to university because she wanted to go. She said she is writing a test tomorrow [Tuesday]."

Her mother is expected to land in the country on Thursday.

Police did not immediately comment.