Irish priest critical after shooting

2007-03-02 12:04

Johannesburg - Irish priest Father Kieran Creagh was in a critical condition in a South African hospital on Friday after being shot during a robbery at a hospice he founded for people in the final stages of HIV/Aids.

A friend and colleague of the priest, Dr William Mapham, said that Creagh's condition had deteriorated overnight and that he had been taken to surgery on suspicion of internal bleeding.

Doctors had already operated on his abdomen and were about to start operating on his chest, Mapham said.

Creagh, who became a household name in 2004 when he volunteered to be the first person in Africa to be injected with a new HIV/Aids vaccine, was shot twice Thursday at Leratong Hospice outside the administrative capital Pretoria.

The thieves made off with a cellphone and an undisclosed amount of money from a safe, the Star newspaper reported.

Leratong Hospice was built in 2004 with money raised by Creagh to care for people dying from HIV/Aids.

- SAPA