Irish missionary priest shot in South Africa

A Passionist priest who was the first person in South Africa to volunteer to take part in the country's HIV vaccine trial in 2003, is seriously ill in hospital after being shot by robbers on Wednesday night. Father Kieran Creagh, originally from Belfast, who works with Aids patients, was attacked by a group of men in the Leratong Hospice which he built, in Soshanguve, near Prewtoria. Father Creagh's brother Liam said it was a traumatic experience. "Two men came in and they overpowered the guards," he said. "They went up to the apartment where he stays at the hospice and they rang the bell. He thought it was a patient coming to get him. He opened the door and I think there was a bit of a struggle. They fired two shots at least. One shot hit him in one of his lungs - and it is lodged there - and the other shot went through his arm." Fr Keiran has worked in South Africa for several. years. In 2004, Fr Keiran volunteered to be the first person to be injected with a trial vaccine for the virua virus. He was named at the International Person of the Year in 2004 for his work in fighting HIV/AIDS in South Africa.