Oscar Pistorius injured in prison fight

Oscar Pistorius has been injured in a prison brawl a South African official has said. It was learnt that the former Paralympic champion and convicted murderer was involved in a fight over the use of a public phone.

The double amputee – who is serving a 13-year jail term for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp – was left with a bruise after “an altercation with another inmate” on 6 December, according to the Department of Correctional Services.

“Oscar Pistorius sustained a bruise following an alleged incident with another inmate over the use of a public phone in the special care unit where both offenders are detained at Attridgeville correctional centre,” a spokesman, Singabakho Nxumalo, said according to The Guardian report.

In November 2016 Pistorius was moved to the prison north of the capital, Pretoria, which caters for inmates with physical disabilities.

He killed Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, by firing four bullets from a handgun through a closed toilet door in his luxury home in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day 2013. He claimed he had mistaken her for a burglar.

Serious outcry followed his first sentencing and then last month, the supreme court of appeal more than doubled his original sentence of six years after the state argued that it was unduly lenient.

Nxumalo said an official investigation had been launched into the incident.

There were unconfirmed reports in South African media that fellow prisoners were angered by a lengthy Pistorius telephone conversation, leading to a fight.