Watch: Robbers blow up van full of cash on crowded freeway

This dramatic video of a cash-car robbery out of Johannesburg, South Africa, demonstrates that explosives are an imprecise tool for breaking into a vehicle.

We say cash car rather than armored car because the vehicle appears to be an ordinary van. But it was laden with cash and had guards inside. Robbers in a BMW and Mercedes drove up behind the van on a crowded highway and shot out a tire.

"The guards were forced out of the vehicle before the suspects blew their cash van up with explosives," the South African Police Service told E News Channel Africa.

"The suspects took an undisclosed amount of money in cash boxes and one of the guard's firearms, they then fled from the scene in two vehicles."

The blast comes at around the 50-second mark in the video above.

It's unclear if blowing up the entire rig was the plan all along or if the robbers were trying to get locked doors open and overdid it - way overdid it.

Given the intensity of the blast and the cars packed all around it, it's a wonder no one was killed. Two guards were evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released, and a nearby motorist was taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries when debris from the blast hit his car.