A father-of-five shot in the chest by armed raiders on his driveway was saved – when the bullet ricocheted off his mobile PHONE.
Siraaj Abrahams, 41, was ambushed as he pulled up outside his home at 11pm by two masked men who tried to haul him out of his vehicle.
During the fracas a 9mm bullet was fired at close range – which miraculously hit the Huawei P8lite smartphone in his jacket pocket.
The raiders escaped with just £15 in cash – and Siraaj was shaken but unhurt thanks to his mobile.
All he has to show for his “near death” experience is a tiny mark on his chest and a hole in his jacket where the bullet struck.
The drama unfolded as businessman Siraaj arrived home in Cape Town, South Africa, from a birthday party in his Hyundai pick-up.
As he waited for his electric gates to open the two men pounced and the first assailant tried to pull him out of the vehicle.
But as Siraaj fought back the second man discharged the weapon.
Speaking to the Daily Voice, he said: “I didn’t even see it coming; the first one just pulled open the door. He pulled me out of the bakkie and we began to struggle.
“During the struggle, the second one, who was two metres away, fired a shot at me.”
Siraaj’s 16-year-old daughter, who returned home from a friend, found her father lying outside his car.
“When I woke, I just felt this burning feeling over my chest and felt to see where it was and if there was blood.”
He was rushed to hospital, where an ECG report estimated Siraaj’s heart had stopped for a few seconds after the shot was fired.
His stunned wife Shamiela, 41, says her husband had been saved by an act of “divine intervention”.
She said: “We said Allah is great, because this is all God’s work, everything had to happen the way it did. We received an ECG report that showed he had flatlined for a few seconds.”
Police say the offenders are still at large following the attack on August 30th.
Phone company Huawei has now handed Siraaj a brand new P9 Lite to replace his “heroic” phone.
And it’s apparently not the first time a Huawei product has saved someone’s life.
Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa marketing director, Hawa Hyath, said: “We had a similar story in Africa a few years ago where a media pad received a bullet while a researcher was conducting his field work.
“We first read about Siraaj’s story in our Nigeria office, then it travelled to our Kenya office and landed up in China.”
