Durban - A man has been shot dead in a shoot-out with police and a police officer was wounded in Cato Manor in Durban in the early hours of Saturday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

Police were conducting an operation in Chesterville in the Cato Manor policing precinct soon after midnight when they spotted four suspicious men, Colonel Thembeka Mbele said.

Police approached them in Nkomo Road to conduct a stop-and-search, but the men fled and started shooting at the police officers. The officers returned fire. One police officer, 35, sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and was taken to hospital for medical attention.

One suspect was fatally wounded and one was arrested, but the others managed to evade arrest. Police recovered a pistol with 10 rounds of ammunition. The arrested suspect would be charged with attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

He would appear in the Durban Magistrate's Court soon. The recovered firearm would be sent for ballistic testing to ascertain whether it had been used in other crimes, Mbele said.