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NI priest is shot in Johannesburg | NI priest is shot in Johannesburg |
(about 4 hours later) | |
A missionary priest originally from Belfast is seriously ill after being shot in a burglary in South Africa. | |
Father Kieran Creagh was attacked by robbers at the hospice he founded to help Aids sufferers in Johannesburg. | |
Fr Creagh's brother Liam said two men overpowered guards and shot him twice - one bullet becoming lodged in his lung. | |
The priest, who was the first person in Africa to be injected with a trial HIV vaccine, was made Irish International Personality of the Year in 2004. | |
He received the award after volunteering to try out the vaccine, despite being free from the virus himself. | |
He has worked with Aids patients in the country for a decade and opened the Leratong hospice in 2004. | |
'Bit of a struggle' | |
Liam Creagh said the shooting had been a traumatic experience. | |
"Two men came in and they overpowered the guards," he said. | |
One shot hit him in one of his lungs - and it is lodged there - and the other shot went through his arm Liam Creagh | |
"They went up to the apartment where he stays at the hospice and they rang the bell. | "They went up to the apartment where he stays at the hospice and they rang the bell. |
"He thought it was a patient coming to get him. He opened the door and I think there was a bit of a struggle." | |
He said the men fired at least two shots. | |
"One shot hit him in one of his lungs - and it is lodged there - and the other shot went through his arm." | |
Other reports suggested up to 14 men broke into the hospice. | |
Police told the Associated Press the robbers, who have not been caught, made off with money from the hospice safe and the priest's mobile phone. |