A gunman killed two people on a Durban municipal bus as terrified passengers took cover under seats.
|||Durban - A gunman killed two people on a Durban municipal bus on Thursday night as terrified passengers took cover under seats.
The bus was travelling along Moses Kotane (Sparks) Road when the man stood up and approached a couple sitting in the middle of the bus.
He shot the couple and made his way to the front of the bus, as if he wanted to get off. He then retraced his footsteps and shot the man and woman again, passengers said.
Police said the man accidentally shot himself in the foot during the second shooting and he was apprehended soon after.
He was taken to hospital.
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said constables Gevais Heslop and Nhlanhla Mkhize had found the man with a gun in his hand in West Road.
Naicker said when police got on to the bus they found the woman’s body slumped in her seat, while the man’s body was found in the aisle.
Both had multiple gunshot wounds.
“We are also looking into the possibility of it being a robbery. We are not certain if the passengers resisted being robbed and were shot as a result,” he said.
The suspect would be charged with murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm. He was under police guard at a local hospital, Naicker said.
The Durban Transport bus, en route to Ntuzuma, had about 30 passengers on board when the shooting occurred.
The gunman had boarded the bus in the city centre.
Passengers, who did not want to be named, said the man had fired shots at a man and woman who were seated towards the middle of the bus.
“We (the passengers) were screaming in fear. We did not know if we were going to be next.
“We thought he was leaving the bus but he came back, stood on the seat, and kept shooting at them. The gunshots echoed inside the bus,” a passenger said.
The bus driver, who did not want to be named, was recovering from shock at the police station after the incident.
He had initially mistaken the sound of the gunshots for a burst tyre. He pulled the bus over to the kerb and when he looked into the rearview mirror, he caught sight of a man holding a gun walking towards him.
“I locked myself in the driver’s cab and feared the worst,” he said.
Spent cartridges were found scattered on the floor of the bus.
According to passengers, the man had not pointed the gun at any of them, nor had he attempted to rob them.
Daily News