Irish priest shot and wounded in South Africa

An Irish priest who ran an Aids hospice in a poor township near the South African capital Pretoria has been shot and seriously wounded in a robbery at his home.

Police today said Father Kieran Creagh was in stable but serious condition in hospital after being shot twice in the upper body.

A group of eight men broke into Creagh’s apartment in the middle of the night. They made off with money from his safe and his mobile phone, said Captain Lucas Sithole.

Creagh runs the Leratong Hospice, which primarily cared for people dying with Aids.

A much-loved local figure, he attracted a regular stream of Irish visitors and nurses to the hospice.

He made headlines in 2003 by becoming the first volunteer in a South African trial of Aids vaccines.