Rain continues to pour in Pretoria

Media houses started preparing for broadcast amid the wet conditions early in the morning.

Umbrellas and rain coats coloured the streets of Pretoria as people made their way to work and school.

Pistorius is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14 last year. Pistorius claims he mistook her for a burglar.

On Monday, the first witness said she heard a woman’s “blood-curdling” screams coming from his house on the night of the shooting.

Michelle Burger took to the stand shortly after Pistorius told the court he was pleading not guilty to the charge of premeditated murder and a string of lesser crimes in contravention of the Firearms Control Act.

Burger, who lives less than 200 metres from Pistorius’s home, said she was woken up at 3am by a woman’s escalating screams, followed by those of a man also crying for help.

Burger, who testified mostly in Afrikaans, said she believed she was listening to a robbery in progress. Her husband called security guards and asked them to investigate.

She was aggressively cross-examined by Pistorius’s advocate Barry Roux who suggested her recollection was confused.

At one point, Roux put it to Burger that when Pistorius became anxious his voice rose as high as that of a woman, and, given the 177-metre distance between their homes in adjoining security estates, it was possible she failed to tell the difference.

The case has generated worldwide attention with international media houses setting up marquees adjacent to the court house.

– Sapa