Mystery mortar hits woman on the head

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Johannesburg - A Brakpan, Ekurhuleni, woman suffered a cracked skull and a shoulder injury when a mortar bomb crashed through her roof and hit her on the head. Felicia Klopper, 20, and her roommate Michelle Fouché were getting ready on Saturday morning at their home in Brakpan to go to a shopping mall. Klopper was sitting on the edge of the bed, about to blow-dry her hair, when the explosive crashed through the ceiling. “We just heard a big explosion coming through the roof and it hit her (Felicia) on the back of the head,” Fouché said on Monday morning. “She was unconscious for a while… when she woke up she was crying, she was screaming for help.”

Fouché said Klopper’s mother took her to the hospital where they found she had a cracked skull and a shoulder injury. She was given 15 stitches.

“She gets a lot of headaches and nausea in the mornings,” she said.

Fouché said Klopper could not comment from the Glynnwood Hospital in Benoni on Monday morning as the doctors said she needed to rest.

Shortly after the explosive crashed through the roof, Fouché pressed the home’s private security alarm and called a friend’s uncle to come look at the mortar, which did not explode. He put the explosive into a bag until police arrived to clear the scene.

“Our forensic and bomb disposal units attended the scene to collect further evidence,” police spokesman Captain Kabelo Marumo said on Monday. “We are investigating the origins of this mortar (shell).”

Marumo urged anyone with information about the mortar to contact the police.

The SANDF’s Apex Military Base in Dalview, Brakpan, is close to Klopper’s home, but Fouché said the police brought the heads of the base to the house and they said that the mortar shell did not belong to them.

Marumo could not comment on whether police suspected military involvement as their investigation was still in its early stages.

Meanwhile, Fouché is struggling emotionally with the incident. “I can’t sleep at night because I’m alone,” she said on Monday morning. “Until she’s back I can’t sleep in that room because every time I go there I see the whole picture again.”

Military expert Helmoed Heitman said owning such an explosive or anything that could fire a high explosive round such as a mortar outside of the military was illegal.

He said based on the picture of the mortar, it appeared to be an older model which had a range of about 2km. Because the mortar had enough velocity to crash through the roof, Heitman said it must have been fired or dropped from a plane, which was highly unlikely.

He also said the family were lucky the mortar did not explode or burn the house down.

SANDF spokesman Brigadier-General Xolani Mabanga could not be reached for comment on Monday morning. However, Beeld reported that he said the SANDF would probe the incident.

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The Star