A prison warder on escort duty was shot dead and another injured in an attack by gunmen at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital on Monday morning, police said.
Police spokesperson Captain Billy Jones said the incident took place at the hospital’s outpatients reception area shortly after 10am.
Four warders brought a prisoner in for medical treatment. Four other men, all armed, came in behind them and opened fire.
One warder was fatally wounded in the chest, while a second, hit in the stomach, is in a stable condition.
The prisoner, hit in the right thigh, is also in a stable condition.
The attackers fled, Jones said.
Western Cape department of correctional services spokesperson Eddie Johnson said the warders were all from Pollsmoor prison.
He had no confirmation that the dead man’s next-of-kin had been notified of his death, so would not release his name at this stage, and would not release the name of the wounded staffer for security reasons.
He said the unsentenced prisoner was being held at Pollsmoor after being arrested for his role in a cash-in-transit heist in the city about two years ago.
The prisoner was taken to Groote Schuur for treatment not available at the prison hospital.
Johnson said it is ”open to speculation” whether the gunmen had been trying to murder the prisoner. — Sapa