An elderly woman escaped death during a farm attack after a bullet missed her and became lodged in her Bible.
The attack reportedly took place on Saturday night outside Mahikeng in the North West.
Netwerk24 reported that Bettie Nel, 82, was woken by noises and encountered two attackers in the passage of the house.
After throwing a doorstop at them, a shot was fired and the suspects fled.
The bullet missed Nel and hit the Bible on the side table next to her bed.
Nel's daughter, Noeline Ferreira, 61, and Ferreira's boyfriend, Thys Pienaar, 63, sustained head injuries after reportedly being attacked in bed with the handle of a pickaxe and a flashlight.
Netwerk24 reports that six suspects stole a firearm and cellphones. According to that publication, no one has been arrested.
Murder rate up by 6.9%
Last week, AgriSA condemned what it called "the continued violence that the farming community and fellow South Africans face daily".
This followed the announcement of the 2017/18 national crime statistics in Parliament on Tuesday.
During the period under review, South Africa's murder rate increased by 6.9%.
In real numbers, this means that a total of 20 336 people were murdered in South Africa in the past year, 1 320 more than in the previous year.
Sixty-two of these were categorised as farm murders: 12 in Gauteng, nine each in Limpopo and the North West, eight each in Mpumalanga and the Free State, seven in KwaZulu-Natal, and three each in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape
Read Netwerk24's full report here.