South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, was charged on Thursday with shooting dead his girlfriend at his upscale home in Pretoria. Police said they opened a murder case after a 30-year-old woman was found dead at the Paralympic and Olympic star's house in the Silverlakes gated complex on the capital's outskirts.
Pistorius, 26, and his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, had been the only people in the house at the time of the shooting, police brigadier Denise Beukes told reporters, adding witnesses had been interviewed about the early morning incident. "We are talking about neighbours and people that heard things earlier in the evening and when the shooting took place," Beukes said outside the heavily guarded residential complex.
Police said a 9mm pistol had been found at the scene. Pistorius, who uses carbon fibre prosthetic blades to run, is due to appear in a Pretoria court on Friday. "He is doing well but very emotional," his lawyer Kenny Oldwage told SABC TV, but gave no further comment.
South Africa's M-Net cable TV channel said it was pulling adverts featuring Pistorius off air immediately after blanket coverage of the arrest in a country more used to honouring Pistorius as a national hero. Pistorius, who was born without a fibula in both legs, was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the 400-metre semi-finals in London 2012. In last year's Paralympics he suffered his first loss over 200 metres in nine years.