Mad axe-man loose in South Africa

A mad axe-man is running around the streets of Durban, South Africa randomly beheading his male victims.

Police are investigating five attacks which left four men dead, one of them totally decapitated, other victims had been hacked at around the neck and one survivor escaped unharmed.

The first victim has been identified as 46-year-old Paulos “Ndodo” Hlongwa, a security guard at a KFC restaurant who’s headless corpse was discovered on Tuesday night close to his home lying next to a blood soaked bucket of fried chicken he was carrying home for his family. Hlongwa’s head was discovered thrown in a dustbin some 2km away from where his body was found.

Hours before Hlongwa was attacked and killed another man in the same area was stalked by a man in a silver car who confronted him with an axe and accused him of raping his daughter and infecting her with the HIV virus.

“He drove slowly past me, before pulling up. He then jumped out of the car with an orange bag. I thought it was a gun. He said: ‘Did you know we would ever meet? Why did you rape my daughter and give her HIV. You destroyed her future.’” The witness told IOL news.

“I was puzzled. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, but he lunged at me with the axe, aiming at my torso. I ducked and ran away as quickly as I could.”

The axe-man allegedly gave chase for a few yards before giving up and going back to his car, he remained in the area until he eventually met and killed Mr Hlongwa. Two days later two more partially decapitated bodies were discovered. One victim was almost completely decapitated, his head was hanging on by a strip of flesh, and the other had been chopped in the neck with a weapon such as an axe.

Lieutenant Colonel Anton Booysen, SA Police Force provincial co-ordinator for psychologically motivated crimes, confirmed that another body had been found in the area two weeks earlier and that police were investigating all four murders and the attack where the victim escaped as being committed by the same perpetrator.

“Personally, I think it’s too coincidental for this not to be the same guy,” Booysen explained.

“Witnesses to the attacks said they thought the guy was hacking at a dog or an animal of sorts, but then realised it was a human being. The people who saw him said he appeared relaxed and confident. During one instance someone shouted at him, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ He then apparently stopped and casually walked away, and it didn’t seem that he was disturbed at being caught.”

For now the axe-wielding maniac is still at large, and despite many witnesses the police have been unable to apprehend a suspect. Witnesses have said they saw a man fitting the description of the serial killer at a local service station where he confronted a group of men and told them he would “kill 100 men if he could”.

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