Durban - A six-year-old boy had to be rushed to hospital after he was knifed in the neck during a family fishing trip to a Durban beach on Sunday.
Tristan Rubendran, of Welbedacht, had been playing on the seashore and in the surf with his cousins at Cuttings Beach in Merebank when he was attacked by an unknown man.
The boy was rushed to Wentworth Hospital where he received stitches.
After a 5km chase, police with dogs tracked down the man, who was in his underwear, and arrested him.
The boy’s grandfather, Danny Moonsamy, said the beach had been lined with fishermen when they family arrived on Sunday morning and they had picked a spot and were fishing while the children played.
At about midday he said a man, described as well built, walked past them and pretended to look at milk bottles lying in the sand.
“The next thing I heard relatives scream Tristan was hit. When I looked at him he grabbed his neck. Blood was squirting out from between his fingers. I took my shirt off and covered his neck. I carried him to the parking lot and we rushed him to hospital,” Moonsamy told the Daily News.
He was later moved to King Edward VIII Hospital and was expected to be transferred to Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital for further tests.
Relatives on Monday morning said he was “recovering well” but was traumatised by the incident.
The boy’s father, Malcolm, who was at the beach, was in shock, but glad his son was alive.
His brother-in-law, Trevor, said he saw the man put the knife to Tristan’s throat and swipe it across his neck. “I could not believe what happened. The man hid the knife under his T-shirt and ran off. I screamed and alerted other fishermen who tried to catch him but he grappled with them and ran off over the canal,” Trevor said.
The man left behind a shirt and pants and Sergeant Shaun Jooste and his dog, Gus, of the metro police dog unit, used the clothes to get a scent.
They gave chase over the canal, into the thick bushes and swamp and tracked the suspect to the Reunion Sapref Oil refinery. The man was cornered by Wentworth police and the SAPS dog unit 5km from the beach and arrested.
Moonsamy said it had been their first visit to the popular fishing spot and Tyburn Primary School Grade 1 pupil, Tristan had been excited to be going to the beach.
Fishermen and south Durban residents have in the past expressed concerns about security at the beach. There have also been calls for the opening of a satellite police station near the beach.
The Chatsworth Rising Sun earlier this year quoted resident and fisherman, Sonny Dorasamy, as saying: “We don’t feel safe with our children playing on the beach as there is no security.”
In June 2012, the body of Wentworth teenager, Tenique Stevens, was found half-naked and covered with a black bag at Cuttings Beach. A rope had been tied around her neck and her mouth stuffed with a cloth.
The 16-year-old’s killer has yet to be found.
Daily News