Oscar Pistorius hospitalised for wrist injuries

Oscar Pistorius, the South African athlete jailed for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was treated in hospital for wrist injuries, raising concerns that the multiple gold medal-winning Paralympian had attempted to commit suicide.

A spokesman for the service where Pistorius was jailed confirmed that Pistorius had been treated in hospital before being returned to custody, adding that the jailed South African track star had denied trying to kill himself.

Pistorius claimed he fell out of bed in his cell.

“Oscar Pistorius denied speculations of a suicide attempt. As a policy principle, we cannot further discuss a particular offender's personal condition in the public domain,” Manelisi Wolela, a spokesman at the Department of Correctional Services, told Reuters, describing the athlete’s injuries as minor.

Singabakho Nxumalo, a spokesman for the correctional services department, did not provide any detail of the injuries, but said the Olympian was treated in hospital for minor injuries to his wrists and returned to his Pretoria cell after the incident.

An investigation is under way, Mr Nxumalo added.

His family spokeswoman, Anneliese Burgess, told Reuters the family would not issue a statement at this stage.

His brother posted on Twitter to say Pistorius was in good spirits and is “doing well given the circumstances”. He called reports the athlete had tried to injure himself “completely untrue and sensational”.

Last month, South African prosecutors said they would appeal against Pistorius’s six-year jail sentence, saying it was too lenient. 

Pistorius had his jail term for killing Reeva Steenkamp increased from five to six years in July, less than half the 15 years sought by prosecutors – a term they called “shockingly lenient”.

Newspaper City Press said earlier on Sunday that Pistorius was rushed to Pretoria's Kalafong Hospital around midday on Saturday.

It quoted a security guard as saying: “He had bad cuts on his wrists and the doctors kept wrapping bandages around them.”

An inmate situated close to a separate hospital annexe within the prison told the paper Pistorius had injured himself intentionally, and it quoted two warders as saying razor blades were found in his cell.