British doctor shot dead after taking wrong turn from airport into mass protests

Commuters were left stranded after taxi operators went on strike Thursday (Image: GETTY ) A British doctor was shot and killed after taking a wrong turn from an airport in South Africa , officials have confirmed.  The 40-year-old man was shot dead last Thursday after he found himself in the middle of violent protests currently ongoing in the Ntlangano Crescent area of Cape Town.  It is believed he had taken a wrong turn from a nearby airport while driving with two other people when a group approached the vehicle and shot him. Unrest on the outskirts of South Africa’s second-largest city began after minibus taxi drivers announced a week-long strike. The Brit is one of five people who have been killed in the devastating violence. A covered corpse lays in a road on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa (Image: AP ) The 40-year-old Brit was with two family members when he drove into the city’s Nyanga township, located near Cape Town international airport. A ‘number of suspects’ then approached his vehicle before shooting him, said Lirandzu Themba, a spokesperson for the police minister. There have been no arrests. The taxis’ national union, angry at what it calls heavy-handed tactics by police and city authorities in impounding vehicles, said its members are not instigating violence. The protests have included stone-throwing, road blockades, looting, arson and public violence, according to the South African Police Service. Individuals have also set fire to buses and cars, blocked roadways, destroyed property and thrown rocks.  Since Thursday (August 3), officers have arrested 120 people for various offences, including malicious damage to property, public violence and looting. The South African national taxi council called for the one-week strike after failing to reach an agreement with the local government over issues with a new municipal law that its members say is disproportionately affecting their livelihoods.  The law grants local authorities the power to impound vehicles for what drivers have described as minor infractions, such as driving without a licence or registration plates, or not wearing a seatbelt. A burnt out bus stands on a freeway on the outskirts of Cape Town (Image: AP ) ‘We are especially aggrieved by the perception of the public that we are lawless,’ the taxi drivers union said in a statement.  ‘The perception is being fuelled by protesters and not members of our organisation.’ Responding to the violence, authorities cleared a road on Monday (August 7) to allow for the free flow of traffic to the airport.  They have also impounded 53 minibus taxis in the process. Jack the Ripper ‘had been dumped by wife’ says top serial killer profiler