A police station in Hillcrest in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) came under attack on Tuesday morning when a man doused himself in petrol inside the charge office, allegedly due to frustration over an identity document, police said.
The man, who also attempted to set fire to a police vehicle, was shot and wounded by police.
“This morning, a 36-year-old man came to the police station with petrol and poured it onto himself and into the charge office in the satellite police station in Molweni,” said police spokesperson Thulani Zwane.
“He said if they [do] not give [him] his identity document, he will burn himself and the police station too,” said Zwane.
According to Zwane, the police officers were held hostage before one of them managed to push the suspect out of the building.
“He burnt himself and he tried to burn the police private vehicle that was parked inside the premises,” said Zwane.
Zwane said that when other police officers arrived to rescue their colleagues, the man tried to grab one of the constables. Police fired a shot in the man’s direction, wounding him. An ambulance arrived soon after to treat the man before moving him to a hospital for further treatment.
Zwane said that because the man was so badly burned, rushing him to the hospital was priority, and that he would be charged at a later stage.
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