attack – praag.org

Petrol bomb attack on Intercape bus kills two

Police in the Western Cape are investigating two cases of murder following the petrol bombing of a double-decker bus that killed two passengers on Tuesday night in Strand.

Police spokeswoman Constable Noloyiso Rwexana said several cases of attempted murder were also being investigated.

“According to the reports, a bus traveling on the Onverwacht Street, Lwandle was thrown with petrol bombs. Two people were fatally injured and about 11 people are injured,” said Rwexana.

“The circumstances surrounding this incident are being investigated. Cases of murder and attempted murder are under investigation. No one has been arrested at this stage.”

ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak said that apart from the two men who died, there were 32 passengers who were injured in the petrol bomb attack.

Earlier in the evening, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, Jean-Pierre Smith, said two fire engines and a rescue vehicle were dispatched to extinguish a fire caused by the petrol bomb attack.

He said their emergency services treated four people who had sustained critical burn wounds on the scene, before transporting them to hospital.

Scores of other passengers seated on the top deck of the bus were also being treated for burn wounds at various hospitals.

“It’s madness. It’s just too horrible. This is a long distance bus…and somewhere there is a mother or daughter or sister waiting for these two men who burnt to death,” Smith said.

“Whatever the motives of this deranged person of persons are that threw this petrol bomb, it’s too awful for words and I hope SAPS [SA Police Service] catch them quickly.

InterCape released a short statement after the attack confirming “one of its coaches was petrol bombed in Strand”.

“The incident is being investigated and the motive for this horrendous attack is not yet clear,” the long distance bus company said.

Source: ANA

Ex-Saffer foils terror attack on French train

When a gunman armed with an AK-47 attempted to attack a packed passenger train in a terror attack in France, Chris Norman, 62 – who grew up in South Africa – thought he was going to die.

But he was determined to die fighting, and therefore “sprang into action”.

Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, has been arrested by French police after opening fire in the packed high-speed train. But his attack was cut short by four men, including Norman and Americans Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler.

The train was travelling between Amsterdam and Paris on Friday and the attack happened shortly after the gunman emerged from the toilet inside carriage 12. One man was hit in the neck by a bullet as terrified passengers and staff fled. Three people were injured in the attack, including Stone.

The men “tackled, beat up and hogtied the suspect”. Besides the assault rifle, they also confiscated a Luger pistol, ammunition and a box cutter.

Norman said he was scared when they decided to tackle the would-be attacker but carried on, with the idea of stopping him.

He spoke to French media after the eventful train journey.

“My first reaction was to sit down and hide. Then I heard one guy, an American, say, ‘go get him’. Then I heard another American saying, ‘don’t you do that buddy’, or something like that.

“I think that was it. So then I decided it was perhaps the only time or only chance to take on the terrorist.”

Norman said the man had extra magazines for the AK-47 and he thought he was going to die.

“My thoughts were I’m probably going to die anyway. I thought I’d rather die being active, trying to take him down than sitting in the corner and being shot. But once you start moving you are not afraid anymore,” he said.

Norman lives in France and has a UK passport. He was born in Uganda and grew up in South Africa before starting his own IT consultancy business in 2012.

Source: IOL

Mother shot dead in her driveway

A case of murder has been opened following last night’s shooting where a white woman (36) was shot dead in her driveway in Esther Park.

The woman lived alone with her three children and full-time nanny.

According to Sebenza SAPS spokesperson, Const Sharon Tsotsotso, the woman came from work and ran herself a bath. A few minutes later her nanny knocked on the door and asked if she was expecting anyone because a silver Toyota Yaris was hooting at the front gate.

“The woman went outside to see who it was. The nanny told police the woman came back into the house to get her ID and the remote for the gate.

As she opened the gate, a man in the left back seat of the car stuck his gun out of the window and shot the woman six times in her upper body. She died on the scene,” said Tsotsotso.

It is believed there were three black suspects in the car. The motive for the murder is unknown.

The woman’s children are staying with a family friend and counselling will be arranged for them by Sebenza SAPS.

Source: Kempton Express

Latest farm murder victim savagely attacked

The 77-year-old white man who died in a Bethlehem hospital on Sunday following a farm attack was severely beaten by his attackers, Free State police said.

“This incident apparently happened last night [Saturday] on the farm Rondekom,” spokesperson Annelie Wrench told News24.

The victim, dr. Hein Smith, was living alone on the farm.

“He was visiting friends last night [Saturday] and according to what we suspect, the killers waited for him and then attacked him when he came home,” Wrench said.

“They severely assaulted him and tied his hands behind his back, and left him in the veld 700m to 800m from the farm house.”

The next day, Smith’s neighbour’s phoned him as they usually did to find out if he was OK, but he didn’t answer.

“They went to investigate and they found him there at around 10:00. He was then taken to hospital in Bethlehem and he died in hospital.”

Smith had severe wounds to his face and arms, and having been lying in the veld through the night, he likely suffered from exposure.

Wrench said they suspected that three black men had been involved in the attack.

No arrests have been made.

Police have opened a murder and robbery investigation.

Earlier on Sunday, Netcare 911 spokesperson Santi Steinmann said when paramedics arrived at the farm, Smith was still alive, but in a critical condition.

“He died shortly after arrival at a local hospital,” she said.

Source: News24

Four to appear after schoolgirl is set alight

Three black women and a black man are set to appear in the Brits Magistrate’s court on Monday for allegedly kidnapping and setting alight a 19-year-old schoolgirl in an apparent romantic revenge attack.

One of the women had allegedly accused Boitumelo Dhlamini of dating her boyfriend, said police spokesperson Captain Paul Ramaloko.

He said the group, aged 20 to 25, allegedly kidnapped her from her school on Thursday and took her to a secluded part of Letlhabile in the North West.

Petrol was poured onto her and set alight.

“The suspects then called police to the scene claiming that the deceased was being attacked by unknown people,” Ramaloko said.

Australia on a manhunt for white woman who punched Asian girl on a train

Australian police are looking for a woman who allegedly punched a 15-year-old girl in the face during what they say was a racial attack on a Sydney train. A description of the assailant, who is described as “a Caucasian with tanned skin” has been communicated to all the media and national manhunt or womanhunt is on to find her.

The teenager, who was of Asian appearance, was sitting on a train with two friends when a couple boarded at Parramatta about 2:00pm yesterday.

Police said the woman in the couple started verbally abusing the 15-year-old girl before physically attacking her as the train approached Lidcombe.

Inspector Sean Gabin from the Flemington Local Area Command said it was an unprovoked attack.

“Approaching Lidcombe, the female and the male have got up from their seats and the female has grabbed the 15-year-old girl by the hair and has started to punch her several times to the face,” he said.

“She’s also proceeded to knee her to the body and continue to assault her to the face.”

Inspector Gabin said fortunately the girl was not seriously hurt and she and her friends had given statements to police.

[She] is described as Caucasian with tanned skin, she’s aged in her late 30s to early 40s, and she’s described as having a black front tooth and missing teeth.

“There were other people in the carriage who were also of Asian appearance and we’d like to speak to anyone who was on that train or who may have recorded the incident,” he said.

“We’re also making enquiries in relation to CCTV on the train and on the platform at Lidcombe and Parramatta rail stations.”

The woman also allegedly kicked the window of the train when she got off at Lidcombe.

“[She] is described as Caucasian with tanned skin, she’s aged in her late 30s to early 40s, and she’s described as having a black front tooth and missing teeth,” Inspector Gabin said.

“She was wearing a blue shiny top and black pants.”

Inspector Gabin said the man she was with is not alleged to have taken part in the attack.

“He’s described as Mediterranean or Middle Eastern in appearance, with a slim to medium build, and he has a tattoo on the left side of his face which looked like a smiley face,” he said.

‘It sends a horrible message overseas’

Anti-Discrimination Board president Stepan Kerkysharian said the nature of the attack is distressing.

If we’re having this kind of attack it’s going to hurt us as a nation as well as hurting individuals and it’s going to create an environment of insecurity.

“Attacks of this nature make people feel insecure, particularly when it’s a young student,” he said.

He said it could also have far-reaching ramifications that could deter international students.

“It sends a horrible message also overseas because Australia is an education destination for many people particularly from China and from other parts of the world,” Mr Kerkysharian.

“If we’re having this kind of attack it’s going to hurt us as a nation as well as hurting individuals and it’s going to create an environment of insecurity.”

Mr Kerkysharian said if found, the person responsible should face the full force of the law.

“To me when it comes to racism, there can be no leeway,” he said.

“We cannot go soft on racism because the ultimate objective of anyone who is a racist is the destruction of people who belong to that race.”

Second white victim of hammer attack dies

Louwrens de Lange is the second man to have lost his life after being attacked with a hammer in the Secunda CBD on Friday.

De Lange and his pregnant life partner were walking near Standard Bank when a man (name still unknown) attacked them with a hammer.

He sustained serious injuries to the head and was admitted to the Evander Hospital.

Mr De Lange had bleeding on the brain and was transferred to the Witbank Hospital where he died.

His partner was also admitted to the Evander Hospital yesterday, but was released last night.

A man who was attacked after Mr De Lange and his partner, died the previous day in the Evander Hospital from head wounds.

The police have not yet released his name.

The hammer wielding man was eventually caught by a traffic officer and community members after he had attacked five people.

The attacker was also admitted to the Evander Hospital.

The police spokesman has not been available for comment.

According to eyewitnesses, the man began in the CBD and hit two men at Lynco and then went on to Secunda Bloemiste where he tried to go in, but the staff saw him and closed the door, he then hit the window.

He then went further in the CBD and near the KFC attacked a white man and a pregnant woman with the hammer.

The couple had a two year old child in a pram as well.

From there he ran in the direction of Roy Campbell Street and attacked another man with the hammer.

Some of the victims were taken to Evander Hospital by Langamed South Ambulance Services and two of the men sustained head injuries and are in a serious condition in hospital.

Source: looklocal

Terrifying ordeal for Ramsgate couple

One of the most terrifying cases of late involved a dramatic jump from a top story window by a 57-year-old Ramsgate woman who wanted to alert her husband to two masked black men who had broken in at breakfast time on Monday.

Police spokesman Captain Gerald Mfeka said Arnold Miller (72), of Ilala Crescent, had taken his daughter to school, leaving his wife, Patricia Lorraine Tench-Wilkinson, home alone.

Ms Wilkinson shared her terrifying ordeal with the Herald.

“I had just made coffee for myself and Arnold. I left his cup in the kitchen, went upstairs to watch the news, leaving the kitchen door open for him and our domestic worker. Suddenly there was a knife at my throat and my three gold chains were ripped off my neck.”

Two men tied her hands and legs with cable ties, then taped her mouth. They demanded money and the keys to the safe and threatened to rape her.

When Mr Miller arrived home the men went downstairs to confront him. Mrs Wilkinson managed to break free, jumped through a window and landed on a pot plant.

She couldn’t see her husband, so – badly bruised – she limped to a neighbour for help.

Meanwhile, the black intruders had already overpowered Mr Miller and were pushing him up the stairs. He managed to surprise them and slammed a security gate closed between them.

They shot him twice in the leg and fled.

“I heard my husband shouting for help and ran back into the house.There was blood everywhere and I remember him saying he was going to die. Luckily the ambulance arrived quickly and he was taken to hospital.”

He is in a stable condition. No arrests have been made.

Where Arnold Miller (72) was found by his injured wife

Source: South Coast Herald

Welkom family lucky to be alive after Tunis attack

A Welkom family is lucky to be alive after two gunmen shot dead at least 21 people at Tunisia’s Bardo Museum.

Johan Cronjé and his family are holidaying aboard the MSC Splendida, which docked in Tunis on Wednesday. He told OFM News via satellite phone from the Mediterranean Sea, he and his family went past the museum in a private taxi and not as part of the cruise tour which had stopped at the museum.

Cronjé says he was informed by their taxi driver that a revolution that took place four years ago keeps rearing its head, and during Wednesday’s attack, the terrorists vented their anger at the government’s inability to provide jobs.

A South African woman also on board the cruise liner was wounded in the attack. The Department of International Relations has confirmed reports that a South African is among the tourists who died.

The Islamic State jihadist group has meanwhile claimed responsibility for an attack. In an audio message posted online, ISIS said “two knights from the Islamic State… heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades, targeted the Bardo Museum” in the capital, Tunis.

The group, which has hundreds of Tunisians among its ranks, threatened more attacks, saying: “What you have seen is only the start.”

Authorities said they have identified the two gunmen shot dead during Wednesday’s assault.

Low-tech power grid attack baffles authorities

They came after midnight, two or more armed individuals so deft that they cut telecommunication cables in an underground vault and outsmarted security cameras and motion sensors at the power substation in a remote corner of Santa Clara County.

At daylight, FBI agents began poring over time-lapse photographs from the surveillance cameras. But the photos revealed only staccato muzzle flashes from a semiautomatic weapon and sparks as shots hit rows of transformers. There was not a face, not a shadow, of who was doing the firing.

The military-style raid on April 16 knocked out 17 giant transformers at the Metcalf Transmission Substation, which feeds power to Silicon Valley. The FBI is still working the case, and agents say they are confident it was not the work of terrorists.

What they do not have is a motive, fingerprints or suspects. But theories are piling up.

No one was injured. But it took utility crews nearly a month to repair the damage.

Four Democratic senators, including California’s Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, on Friday urged utility regulators to beef up security at power plants and substations around the nation. They said the “sophisticated attack” was a “wake-up call” about threats to crucial infrastructure.

Counter-terrorism officials have repeatedly warned of a potential cyberattack that could disable or crash electric grids, but the assault 15 miles southeast of San Jose was decidedly low-tech.

Law enforcement sources and others briefed on the investigation say the gunmen fired 120 rounds from a high-powered rifle and that nearly every shot hit the transformers 40 yards away in a 20-minute period.

The transformers began to leak tens of thousands of gallons of oil. They overheated and shut down, but did not explode.

Officials say the attackers brought night-vision scopes for their weapons, used heavy wire cutters to snip fiber-optic cables in a below-ground bunker and knew the specific manholes to open to reach the right cables.

The team briefly disabled the 911 emergency system and phone lines. They set off a motion detector by the fence before leaving, but the facility sits beside U.S. 101, a convenient escape route.

Source: LA Times

‘Hush, Madam,’ I am stabbing you

In an ironic mixture of the master-servant code, a black criminal in Ellisras, Transvaal said to his female white victim: “Hush Madam.” At the same time he was stabbing her repeatedly with a home-made knife, according to a report in Beeld.

“It was as if he wanted me to die,” Sandy Troskie, 45, told the newspaper yesterday.

Mrs. Troskie and her husband, Frans, 50, who are owners of the Sitatunga Safaris Lodge, were attacked last Saturday night in their home by four black men. According to them, it was an attempted murder as their assailants were stabbing them with the object of killing them.

The couple were being treated in the Montana Hospital in Pretoria for multiple stab wounds, but were grateful for “having survived”.

Frans Troskie was angry, saying, “If I get hold of them, I will cut off their fingers one by one.”

The attackers only took a cellphone.

Mr. Troskie was watching television with his wife having retired to the bedroom when four black men stormed into their home.

“Only one was wearing a balaklava,” he said. “When I saw the masked man, I knew we had trouble.”

The four black men, armed with machetes and knives, immediately started attacking Mr. Troskie by hitting and stabbing him. Among other injuries, he sustained a hard blow over the head with a machete.

“As I tried to stop one, the other would stab me.”

Mr. Troskie finaly succeeded in kicking one of his attackers and left the house to look for help.

But in the meantime one of the black criminals managed to reach his wife Sandy.

“I heard that there was a lot of noise,” she said. “As I turned round, one of them came for me.”

He started stabbing her in her torso. She tried to prevent the stabbings and so got stabbed in the muscle and sinews of her right hand.

He repeatedly told her in a very calm way: “Hush, Madam.”

Mrs. Troskie gave him a single kick, after which he fell, grabbed her cellphone and ran off.

At this point Frans Troskie and his farmworkers arrived, each armed with a machete too.

The couple said that they were grateful that their two children and their friend had gone to the hunting camp just prior to the attack.

Their 12-year old daughter described the blood in their hom as a scene from a “scary movie”.

So far, the attackers have not been caught.

One dead, 21 injured in US consulate attack in Afghanistan

US consulate building in Herat, a former hotel

Taliban militants attacked a US consulate in western Afghanistan Friday, killing an Afghan guard and injuring 21 people including 16 civilians, police said.

“Two attackers detonated their explosives-laden truck at the first entrance of the US consulate at 5:30 am (0100 GMT) in Herat city, injuring four guards of a private security company and two policemen,” said Rahmatullah Safi, police chief of Herat province.

“Following the explosion, three others who were in another vehicle opened fire on the guards,” Safi told dpa.

“One of the injured guards died due to bleeding,” he said.

The three remaining assailants were killed when the police returned fire, he said.

At least 16 civilians were injured by flying glass, according to police.

“The people were sleeping in their houses around the consulate compound and were injured when the strong explosion broke their windows,” said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Herat province police.

US Ambassador to Kabul James B Cunningham condemned the attack.

“We are grateful for the quick response of the Afghan and ISAF security forces, who secured the facility and kept our personnel safe,” Cunningham was quoted by a statement, referring to the International Security Assistance Force or ISAF.

He also said that “many Afghan civilians were killed in the attack,” while police said that only one guard was killed.

“The ISAF helicopters were flying over the area to help security forces if needed,” Ahmadi said.

Another police officer said consulate staff were evacuated by helicopter, but Safi denied this, saying the diplomats were safe inside the compound.

Earlier news reports said three security personnel were killed.

The US State Department confirmed the attack, but not the casualties.

“There are no American casualties,” the department’s deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “At this point there may be one wounded contract security member, and there are likely wounded Afghan police, though numbers are unknown.”

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

“A group of martyrdom-seeking mujahideen attacked the US consulate this morning, in which a large number of US troops and local security personnel were killed and parts of the consulate buildings were damaged,” the group’s spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmad said. -dpa

Woman shot by 8 armed blacks in Bronkhorstspruit

Teresa Hammond (43) was shot and one of her guests seriously injured during an attack at her home at 1.30 am on 6 August, reports Sunette Bridges.

Teresa awoke to find 8 armed black men in her bedroom, with a gun against her head in her home in Ekandustria near Bronkhorstspruit. Her husband, Mike, was in hospital where he is being treated for a lung infection and her children, Michelle (13) and Leslie (5) were asleep in their bedrooms.

Hammond’s guests, Derick and Michelle Lidston, where sleeping in the guest room on the ground floor of the house.

“When I awoke at 1.30, there was a gun against my head and I was surrounded by 8 men. One of them was an employee of mine.”

The attackers demanded to know where the safe was and Teresa told them that they didn’t have one or kept any cash in the house. The men then went to fetch her children.

Some of them started searching the house for valuables and Teresa managed to escape to the bottom floor with her children. She ran to the guest room to warn her guests and they pushed a wardrobe in front of the door. She told Derick to get out via the window to look for help.

The attackers broke down the door and shot Teresa through the wardrobe.

“I shot the bitch!” one of them yelled.

Derick jumped out of the window but the attackers waited for him outside. They brutally assaulted him and started dragging him on the tar road.

Teresa managed to hide her children. The attackers fled at 2.15 am with cellphones, wallets and jewelry.

Derick was seriously injured and taken to hospital where he had to undergo surgery.

The Hammonds’ employee, who was involved in the attack, has been taken into custody. The other 7 are still at large. – Sunette Bridges

Elderly couple survive 11 gunshots

An elderly couple miraculously survived 11 gunshots fired at them by robbers in the bedroom of their Pretoria home.

Magda and Niek Hugo, both 75, who live at and run a business on the premises of the Sun Eden Naturist Resort, were asleep in the early hours of Wednesday morning when armed attackers broke into their home, Beeld reported.

Marius Mok, spokesman for the neighbourhood watch in the area, said the Hugos were alerted to the break-in by their squawking parrot.

They locked themselves in their bedroom, but the attackers broke the door down and fired 11 times at the old couple, it was reported.

“We suspect there were more than two burglars, because nine shots were fired with a shotgun, and two were fired with 9 mm pistol,” Mok said.

Daniel Rheeder, Hugo’s son-in-law, said his mother-in-law was hit once in the right arm, and his father-in-law was shot in the hand.

Niek Hugo managed to grab his pistol and fire back at the intruders, who fled.

“They’re both in the Montana hospital, doing fine,” Rheeder said. – Sapa