Girl shot at God's Window

2008-12-05 09:21

Buks Viljoen

Nelspruit - A 15-year-old girl from Pietermaritzburg was shot and injured by a robber at the viewing site of God's Window outside Graskop in Mpumalanga on Wednesday.

The girl, whose name is being withheld at the request of her mother, had stopped at the viewing site of the well-known natural attraction to take photographs.

She and her mother, Mandy Cocco, 42, were on their way to Hoedspruit to fetch her brother. Cocco is in South Africa to fetch her children for a holiday in Dubai, where she now lives.

"I saw three men walking towards us where we were busy taking photographs. I didn't really take notice as there were other tourists in the area," Cocco said on Thursday.

"When one of them walked past me, he grabbed my handbag. I screamed and started hitting him with the camera," said Cocco.

Shot fired

"One of the robbers took a firearm from a plastic bag. The next moment a shot was fired and my daughter started screaming."

Her daughter was hit in the right shoulder.

The robbers jumped into the Mercedes-Benz which she had hired, and sped off. "Only then did I see how much blood was all over my child."

They flagged down a passing car and called the police. The wounded girl was taken for treatment in Graskop and then the Nelspruit Medi-Clinic. The bullet was removed during an emergency operation.

Cocco said her daughter was very traumatised. She had already been moved from the intensive care unit to a general ward.

Police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Mokomene confirmed the attack on Thursday. He said the stolen vehicle had been found hours later in Phalaborwa. No one has been arrested yet.

- Beeld