SA woman survives carjack fall

South Africa police say a woman is lucky to be alive after she was pushed off a 60m bridge by car hijackers. Her near-death experience in the coastal city of Durban has left her with several fractured ribs, pelvis and lower spine injuries, police said. The 26-year-old woman was rescued by a passer-by who spotted her on the sand bank below the bridge.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world with fears of an increase before the festive season. In the last year there has been a 5% increase in car hijackings. The latest statistics show 14,915 incidents between April 2008 and March 2009. Durban is one of the cities to host the 2010 football World Cup, but officials insist that security will not be a problem.

Kavisha Seevnarain is recovering at a Durban hospital after three men threw her off a bridge before making off with her car. She told her parents that she was followed by a car on Friday evening between 2100 and 2200 local time.

When she stopped at an intersection, a man jumped out of the car, smashed her driver's door window and pulled her out. She was forced into their car at gunpoint and the robbers took her to various ATMs to make withdrawals from her bank cards, police said.