A schoolgirl was killed by a stray bullet fired during a shoot-out between robbers and security guards at a house in Fairlands, Johannesburg, on Tuesday morning, said police.
The three robbers have since been arrested, said Captain Siphiwe Ndlovu.
He said the child’s mother arrived at the house to pick up a schoolmate at 6.30am.
”When she blew the hooter, instead of the child coming out, a suspect came out. She asked who he was. He didn’t answer. He went back into the house.”
Suspecting something amiss, the woman called a security company, said Ndlovu.
They arrived and there was crossfire.
”The child, who was in the car, was shot in the head,” he said.
Her mother drove off, trying to take the 12-year-old to hospital, but met up with paramedics at a petrol station in Sundowner.
ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said paramedics were told there was a ”big bang” before the child slumped forward into her sister’s lap.
It looked as if she was shot through an open side window. She sustained a ”massive head injury”, he said.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate her, but she showed no signs of life and was declared dead on the scene.
Ndlovu could not immediately provide information about the robbery in Fairlands or the circumstances of the arrest. — Sapa