OSCAR Pistorius was treated for minor wrist injuries at a hospital and has been returned to a South African jail where the Olympian is serving a six-year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

The report of injuries to Pistorius, who denied he had attempted suicide, came as athletes compete at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

According to local newspaper City Press, citing another inmate at the prison, Pistorius had to go to hospital after deliberately harming himself.

“Two warders with knowledge of the hospital section said blades were subsequently found in Pistorius’s cell during a search yesterday afternoon,” the newspaper reports.

It also said a security guard at Kalafong Hospital in Pretoria where Pistorius was taken said the 29-year-old “had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.”

Pistorius, known as “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber running blades, gained worldwide fame when he ran against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 London Olympics, the first amputee runner to compete at the games.

His borther Carl has tweeted that reports of a suicide attempt are incorrect, saying he “slipped in his cell and injured himself”.

“We have just seen Oscar and he is doing well,” Carl Pistorius said on Twitter.

Pistorius told officials that he suffered the injuries after falling out of bed, said Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the South Africa’s correctional services department.

“I know that there are reports saying that he had tried to injure himself - they are completely untrue and sensational,” the prison services spokesman said, adding: “He’s back in our care now... He slipped in his cell and injured himself, nothing serious.”

The former track star was initially treated by medical staff at the Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria, and then transferred to Kalafong hospital, said Manelisi Wolela, another official at the department. Pistorius was returned to his cell, and an investigation is underway.

“Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt,” Wolela said in a text message to media.

“As a policy principle, we cannot further discuss a particular offender’s personal condition in the public domain,” he said. Pistorius’ family declined to comment, referring inquiries to the correctional services department.

When asked about the report of cut wrists, Nxumalo said he couldn’t “discuss details on a particular offender’s personal conditions in the public domain.”

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal Pistorius’ six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient. The double-amputee athlete, who was sentenced on July 6, could be released on parole after three years. The prescribed minimum sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years, though a judge can reduce that penalty in some circumstances.

Pistorius also previously served one year in prison for manslaughter for shooting 29-year-old Steenkamp, a model and reality TV star.

That manslaughter conviction was upgraded to the more serious offense of murder after an earlier prosecution appeal, leading to a new sentencing.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in his home in the pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day, 2013. Pistorius testified that he killed Steenkamp by mistake, thinking there was an intruder hiding in the bathroom. Prosecutors said he shot her intentionally after an argument.

Pistorius and his longtime coach, Ampie Louw, said before Steenkamp’s killing that they wanted to retire together at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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