A pregnant woman has been shot dead while she was giving birth in South Africa.
Shaida Nathan, 32, a mother-of-three, was in the midst of delivering her fourth child in a back-garden shack in Scottsdene on the outskirts of Cape Town around 6am Sunday when the attack happened.
Witnesses say two men ran into the garden and opened fire on the shack, leaving Shaida wounded.
Paramedics were called but were unable to save the mother or her unborn child.
Police say one of the two men who were with Shaida at the time, believed to be her two older sons, was the intended target of the attack.
Both of the men were also wounded and taken to hospital. Their current condition is unclear.
Officers say it is also unclear if the shooting was gang related, but it happened in a notorious high-crime area.
A local resident who witnessed the incident said two men were seen jumping over the fence of the yard and started shooting at the backyard shack.
“It happened on Sunday just after 6am. The two shooters came from Laboheme Street’s side and shot a klomp skote [shots] at the hokkie [shack] where Shaida and two men were.
Relatives say they were unable to visit the hut where Shaida died because of multiple other shootings in the area through Sunday and Monday.
One relative, who did not want to be named, told IOL: ‘Shaida was a mother of three children.
‘One child is in foster care, the other two were with her, but I don’t know where they are now.’
“Shaida was a patient at Stikland psychiatric hospital. From what I’ve heard from paramedics, she was in labor and they tried to save her baby.

Police say the circumstances surrounding the murder are being investigated. No arrests have been made in the case and the suspects remain unknown.
On 13th June, President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the ‘surge in murders of women and children’ in South Africa.
Ramaphosa said: ‘It is a dark and shameful week for us as a nation. Criminals have descended to even greater depths of cruelty and callousness.
‘We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the pandemic, violent men are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children.
‘We need to understand what factors are fueling this terrible trend and, as society as a whole, address them urgently.’
On 12th June, the body of a young woman was found under a tree in Dobsonville in Soweto.
Her murder followed the death of eight-month-pregnant Tshegofatso Pule, who was reportedly stabbed and found hanged from a tree in a field in Roodepoort days before.
Several days later, Naledi Phangindawo, 25, was hacked to death by a man with an axe and a knife, according to reports.
Phangindawo’s murder was one of the numerous gruesome incidents of femicide plaguing the Western Cape, other victims include 36-year old Sibongiseni Gabada from Khayelitsha and 27-year Altecia Kortjie and her seven-year-old daughter Raynecia from Belhar. The country as a whole has seen an unprecedented rate of Gender-Based Violence.