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'Non-stop shouting' heard in Pistorius home

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Paralympic track star Oscar PistoriusA witness heard "non-stop shouting" coming from the home of Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius shortly before his girlfriend was shot dead, the lead detective in the murder investigation said during the second day of his bail hearing.

Warrant officer Hilton Botha also told the Pretoria magistrates court on Wednesday that Pistorius' girlfriend, model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp, was hit by three bullets, in the head, elbow and hip.

Pistorius, a double amputee known as the "Blade Runner", broke down in tears as Botha presented his testimony. The day ended with the bail hearing being adjourned until Thursday morning.

The shooting has stunned South Africa and the millions around the world who saw the track glory of the athlete, who had no lower legs, as an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity.

Steenkamp was in a locked toilet adjoining Pistorius' bathroom when she was shot in the early hours of Thursday last week.

Botha said the angle at which the shots were fired through the door suggested the shooter had aimed specifically to hit somebody in the toilet.

'Negative connotation'

Botha, who arrived at the scene at 4:15am local time (02:15 GMT) to find Steenkamp dead at the bottom of the stairs, also said police had found unlicensed .38 ammunition in Pistorius' house in an upmarket gated compound north of Pretoria.

Botha said police found two containers of testosterone and needles in Pistorius' bedroom, as he said the athlete was a flight risk and should not be granted bail.

State prosecutor Gerrie Nel also had to correct Botha when he initially called the substance “steroids.''

Pistorius' lawyer, Barry Roux, said on questioning the detective, who was described as a 16-year police veteran, that it was not a banned substance and that police were trying to give the discovery a “negative connotation.''

"It is an herbal remedy,'' Roux said. “It is not a steroid and it is not a banned substance.''

'Nowhere to go'

On Tuesday, Nel  told the court that he would elaborate on the state's version that Reeva Steenkamp and the athlete had a fight and that she fled to the toilet before Pistorius shot through the door four times and killed her.

"She couldn't go anywhere," Nel told the packed courtroom.

"It must have been horrific."

Nel said Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he rose from his bed after a fight with Steenkamp, pulled on his prosthetic legs and walked about seven metres from his bedroom to the locked toilet door and pumped it with four bullets, three of which hit Steenkamp.

That contradicted the runner's statement, read aloud by his defence lawyer, who described how the couple spent a quiet night together in the athlete's upscale home in a gated community in the capital of Pretoria, then went to sleep at about 10pm.

Sometime before dawn, Pistorius said he awoke, and walking only on his stumps, pulled a fan in from an open balcony and closed it.

That is when he said he heard a noise and became alarmed because the bathroom window, which had no security bars, was open and workers had left ladders nearby.

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