Daily Sun (January 20 2014) - TINTSWALO banged on the locked door and demanded that the woman let her in.

But nothing could prepare her for the horror scene that greeted her when the woman opened the door.

THE WOMAN'S CHEEKS AND MOUTH WERE COVERED IN BLOOD.

The mentally disturbed woman had hacked Tintswalo's eight-year-old relative with a panga . . . and then sucked blood from his wounds.

Tintswalo Hlongwane (55) from Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, told Daily Sun that when she came back from work last Monday, about six kids came running to her house to call her.

They told her that a neighbour had called the boy into her house and he was screaming for help.

"My daughter and I ran to the neighbour and heard the boy shouting from inside the house," said Tintswalo.

"I banged on the door and screamed at her to open the door," she said.

After a few minutes the woman opened it.

"She kneeled in front of me. Her lips and cheeks were covered with blood," said Tintswalo.

"She said she was sorry for what she had done to the boy but she was craving blood."

Tintswalo didn't respond. She simply told the woman to release the boy from the locked bathroom. "This woman used to be my friend but then there were rumours that she was unstable. I felt sorry for her and even asked my pastor to counsel her - and now she does this to me," she said.

"I am told she didn't say anything to the boy. She just attacked him, then knelt in front of him and licked blood from the wound on his head."

Tintswalo said it was not the first time the woman had behaved strangely.

"When this boy was two years old she took him away on her back and ran away with him," she said.

"We saw her and chased after her and saved the boy, but she couldn't explain why she had done it. She needs help." Tintswalo said they don't want revenge but they want the woman to get help.

"We can't allow her to hurt children. This is beyond crazy," she said. Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said a 58-year-old woman was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

"She appeared in the Watervaal Magistrates Court. She was granted R2 000 bail which she failed to pay. She will remain in custody until her next appearance on 7 March," said Mulaudzi.

See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....

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