Two girls, aged 14 and four, have been rescued after being held in a tiny underground burrow by an alleged serial rapist, South African police said yesterday.
A 31-year-old man arrested near the coastal town of Hermanus in the Western Cape province on Sunday claimed the younger girl was his daughter, police said, but they have been unable to verify the claim.
The 14-year-old was abducted from a farm in the area in December 2005 but it is not clear how long the younger girl had been kept underground.
"The girls were kept in an underground room on a river bank in the Hemel-op-Aarde [Afrikaans for heaven on earth] Valley," a police statement said.
The man had been on the run for several months and is linked to at least 21 criminal cases arising from a series of rapes, burglaries and thefts in the Hermanus area over the past year.
There is also one earlier charge of abduction against him, details of which were not immediately available.
No charges have yet been leveled against the man in connection with the discovery of the two girls.
"The investigation is at an early stage," police spokeswoman Inspector Bernadine Steyn said.
The girls were found living in a burrow about 2m by 3m in area dug out of a river bank. Sheets of corrugated iron supported the roof.
The burrow contained a mattress, food and cooking utensils, clothing and a gas stove.
The girls were described by local newspapers as not emaciated, not visibly hurt and "quite clean," but traumatized.
The man was captured on Sunday morning after breaking into a house and being recognized as a wanted suspect. He led police to the two girls.
He was due to appear in court today.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of