A murder investigation has been launched in South Africa following a home invasion which resulted in the death of a Belgian man and a Dutch woman.
South African police are looking for the alleged perpetrators of the break-in, which took place in Marloth Park, a holiday town and wildlife sanctuary located in the northeast of the country.
The two victims, identified as a 53-year-old Belgian man and a 74-year-old woman of Dutch nationality, were in a home owned by the Belgian national along with two other women, De Standaard reports.
The Belgian man is said to have been a years-long resident of neighbouring Mozambique, where he owned several businesses.
According to police statements reported in local media, at least two men approached the property, which belonged to the Belgian man, asking for work.
"They demanded to work, to which the family said there was none at the moment that they could offer," police spokesman Brig Leonard Hlathi said. "Suddenly more men appeared, with one of them wielding a firearm."
The men invaded the home, tied up and gagged the victims and stripped the property of valuables. When they left, two of the four victims managed to free themselves and alert authorities through a panic button in the home, while the other two died, according to HLN.
When police arrived after being notified at around 10 PM, they established that the Belgian man and Dutch woman had died from suffocation.
The surviving victims, which different media reports have identified as the Belgian man's wife and daughter, were taken to the hospital.
Police have launched an investigation and are working to track down and identify the perpetrators of the deaths, which they are treating as a double murder.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
