Soldier runs amok

Press, 31 March 1980, Page 8

Soldier runs amok

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury A black Rhodesian soldier has killed a girl and wounded four people when he shot at passers-by in the centre of Salisbury. It was the first violent incident in the city centre since last month’s General Elections, won by Mr Robert Mugabe. The shooting was. close to the offices of Mr Mugabe’s party. The soldier, wearing a camouflage uniform and a peaked cap, appeared to be drunk. . ■ ' . ' ,

He fired several bursts from an automatic rifle, then a number of single shots, killing the girl and wounding a woman and three men. AU were Africans,

He was overpowered by a mob of angry Africans after being chased by an unarmed white man. The police intervened to take the soldier.

They did not identify him. Witnesses say the soldier Struck another African with his gun outside the Zimbabwe African National UnionPatriotic Front offices before walking to the. middle of a

read junction about 100 m away and opening fire, lhe soldier then lay in the street in a firing position and shot,at people crouched in doorvays near the party headquarters. TheVwhite man, who declined to be identified, approached the gunman as he lay finrg in a different direction

“When I drove up I saw ■all the -people standing around. I wad to do something. Wheri he hit thfej deck I decided to l ackle him from behind,” he t<ld reporters.