Johannesburg - Not one but two groups of intruders managed to breach security at South Africa's Pelindaba nuclear research facility last week, when armed robbers stormed the control room and shot and injured a worker, it emerged Tuesday. Briefing the media on the embarrassing security breakdown at Pelindaba, near Pretoria, in the early hours of Thursday, South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) head Rob Adam revealed that the western section of the plant had also been breached.
A security officer spotted a second group of intruders on the plant premises and fired at them, causing them to flee, he told reporters.
Meanwhile, emergency services officer Anton Gerber was in stable condition in hospital after being shot in the lung during a break-in at the plant's eastern section.
Gerber had tried to tackle a group of armed men who managed to get into the electronically-sealed control room and were making for the control panel, he told Pretoria News in a hospital interview.
The four gunmen made off with a computer, Tuesday's press conference heard.
NECSA said it had suspended its security management pending the outcome of the investigation into the security breaches. Police are also investigating the incident. No arrests have been made as yet. NECSA is offering a reward of 25,000 rands (3,700 dollars) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attackers.
Pelindaba was the home of South Africa's apartheid-era nuclear weapons programme.
South Africa built more than six nuclear weapons, which were later dismantled in the early 1990s during the transition to democracy.
Weapons-grade uranium is still stored at the site under international supervision, according to unconfirmed reports.
South Africa has some of the highest crime rates in the world. Armed burglaries of homes and businesses are particularly common. South Africa recorded over 126,000 armed robberies in the year to March 2007, up 6 per cent on the previous year.
