PHOTOS: Last moments of Mozambican man who bled to death in South Africa's anti-immigrant violence

A man who fled to South Africa in the hope of a better life has been brutally murdered by a mob who are believed to have attacked him purely because he came from Mozambique.

Shocking images capture the moment the armed gang surround Emmanuel Sithole and repeatedly stab him with knives and bludgeon him with a wrench in Alexandra township near Johannesburg.

In a chilling twist the victim was left bleeding to death in a gutter because a medical centre just 300 feet away was closed for the day because the doctor who worked there was also a foreigner and feared becoming a victim of a xenophobic attack himself.

The brutal attack was captured on camera on Saturday morning by a journalist from South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper who was in the neighbourhood to interview a number of foreign-born shopkeepers who'd had their businesses looted overnight.

 

But as children played in the streets and onlookers stopped to inspect the damage from the previous evening, the Mozambique-born passer-by was brutally attacked without warning by a man carrying a metal wrench.

As Mr Sithole sat injured in the gutter another thug saw what was going on and joined in the attack using a knife to stab him repeatedly while the first attacked continued to beat him with the wrench.

A third attacker - wearing a grey hoodie - then reportedly entered the fray, running over and kicking Mr Sithole in the head as he pulled out a large butcher's knife. Before he had the chance to use the knife a witness intervened and the three men fled the scene.

It was too late for Mr Sithole, however, who managed to stumble along the road pleading for help for his fatal injuries before collapsing fatally injured in a rubbish-strewn gutter.

Witnesses, including the journalist, took Mr Sithole in the back of a car to a nearby medical centre but found it was closed because the foreign-born duty doctor had failed to turn up for his shift because he feared being attacked by the xenophobic hordes rampaging through the township.

During the subsequent journey to a hospital, Mr Sithole's condition deteriorated as he screamed and winced in agony before he eventually fell unconscious. Porters initially refused to take the man into the hospital as he appeared to be dead but, after spotting him choking he was rushed inside the building where doctors tried in vain to save his life.

The cause of death was later established as a direct stab wound to the heart and his identity established from a mobile phone found in his pocket.

More horrifying pictures of the gruesome attack below... 

...DailyMail