A South African rape suspect has shot and killed a policeman inside a courtroom before turning the gun on himself, a fresh shock to a country struggling with one of the world's highest crime rates.
The suspect was produced in the Alberton Magistrate's Court near Johannesburg on Thursday on a robbery charge when policeman Daniel Khoza arrived in the courthouse to arrest him for an unrelated rape of a 16-year-old girl.
The man pulled out a gun and shot Khoza, 39, in the head. He then shot himself and died later in hospital, police said.
Politicians immediately vowed to get tough on attacks against police. "The continuous brutal killing of police officers...is regrettable and unacceptable," Nomvula Mokonyane, safety minister of Gauteng province, said on Friday.
Police say 135 officers were killed in the line of duty last year, down from 155 in 2001.
Officials said they were investigating how the suspect brought a gun through the metal detector at the courthouse.
South Africa is notorious for violent crime and Johannesburg is thought to be one of the world's most dangerous cities. Police statistics show that there are around 50,000 rapes and 20,000 murders in the country every year.