12 May 2018 12:00 am
Verulam, (AFP/HT), 11 May 2018 -
Armed attackers struck a mosque outside the South African city of Durban on Thursday, stabbing to death an imam and injuring two others in a country known for its peaceful religious relations.
Three men entered the large mosque after midday prayers, carrying guns and attacking the victims with knives and later flinging a petrol bomb which set fire to the building.
Police said the attackers remained at large, after escaping in a Hyundai car from the Imam Hussain mosque in Verulam town. “The motive of the attack is unknown. Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service, told AFP “the (imam) was tied up and thrown to his knees and his throat was slit. The other two men were stabbed -- one was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the groin of his left leg. “Before the assailants left the mosque, a petrol bomb was thrown into the mosque and it was set alight.”