German tourist killed in South Africa

A German tourist was killed Monday in South Africa by gunmen who intercepted his car near the large Kruger Park game reserve, police said, suspecting foul play, the police said in a statement on Monday, October 3.

Four German tourists were driving to the Mdluli Safari lodge, a luxury lodge about 15 kilometers from the northeastern Kruger Park when they were intercepted by three armed men who demanded that they open the vehicle doors.

Preliminary investigations show, "the driver then locked the doors and one of the suspects then shot him in the upper body through the window" and he died on the spot, the police said.

The assailants then fled in their car without taking anything from the tourists.

The German embassy in South Africa is in touch with local authorities about the "tragic incident" and is "looking after the German nationals who were affected," its spokesman Christopher Schmidt told AFP.

The Kruger, which covers some 20,000 square kilometers embedded in a vast unfenced savannah that stretches into neighboring Mozambique, is South Africa's largest national park, and one of the continent's most tourist-friendly wildlife reserves.

South Africa's Department of Tourism offered its condolences and urged the police to find and prosecute the assailants.