An Indian origin woman was shot dead and her husband injured by a gang of armed robbers who broke into their house in a Durban suburb.
Hemawathee Pooran, 35, was shot dead by three robbers who barged into their home in the suburb of Avoca on Wednesday. She and her husband, Rajen, had just seen their three children off to school.
The armed men first approached Rajen and asked him for a job but when he said he had no work for them, they attacked him. They then forced him into the house and demanded money and jewels.
"I told them to take whatever they want and leave," said Rajen. "But they continued to attack me with their gun and demanded that I give them a gun. I have none and I pleaded with them to take anything and leave."
"My wife, who was washing clothes in the bathroom, heard the commotion and began to scream to the neighbours for help. The bandits began shooting and my wife was hit in the head. She died immediately," said Rajen.
Angered by the killing, members of the Indian-origin community in Durban claim the police have lost the war against crime and criminals.
"We are easy targets," said Sam Arumoogam, a resident of the large Indian residential area of Phoenix, north of Durban.
Arumoogam said many families had one or two of their close family members killed in armed robberies or car hijackings over the past few years - "But yet hardly any of the killers are brought to book."
