/ 23 October 2007

Motorist shot on N3 highway

A Durban motorist was shot on Tuesday while a second bullet narrowly missed another driver, paramedics said.

ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks said the motorists came under fire on the N2/N3 split, near the so-called Spaghetti Junction, after a car accident just after midnight.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Muzi Mngomzulu confirmed the incident and said a case of attempted hijacking was being investigated by Cato Manor police.

He said that the police had a slightly different version of what had transpired.

”The woman slowed down at 12:10am after spotting a boulder and rock across the road,” said Mngomezulu.

”Shots were fired and the woman was hit in the hand. Her vehicle was also damaged by bullets,” he said.

But according to the paramedics, the 42-year-woman allegedly drove over the rocks, damaging two of her tyres.

Banks said a tow-truck driver travelling behind her jumped out of his vehicle and warned the woman to carry on driving as she had not stopped in a safe place.

Both parties were about to leave when gunshots were heard.

”The woman was shot in the left hand as the bullet came through the back rear window,” Banks said.

A second bullet missed the tow-truck driver as it went through a door of his vehicle.

Banks said the woman was taken to a local hospital in a stable condition.

ER24 said that four days ago, a man was changing his car’s tyre on the N3, when he was shot by an unknown gunman.

He reportedly died in hospital. – Sapa