A ROMAN Catholic priest was gunned down in a township north of Pretoria in a hijacking shortly after he conducted a prayer meeting at a home, a police representative said on Sunday. Father Michael Danucci (60) was overpowered as he left the house at Soshanguve, about 15 kilometres north of the city, Inspector Anton Breedt said. Danucci had just finished a prayer meeting. He was shot several times before the gunman and his accomplices drove off in his car. Danucci died on the scene. The priest was an Italian who came to the country in 1968 and was ordained as a priest in 1969 in South Africa, said a fellow clergyman. He belonged to the religious Order of Stigmatine Fathers. Some 21 000 murders were committed in South Africa last year, where violent crime continued to make headlines. – AFP