A FAMILY watched in terror as a gang of attackers tried to force their six-year-old son into an OVEN and threatened to cook him alive.

       The distraught schoolboy was at the mercy of seven heavily armed men who stormed the family farm in Mpumulanga Province, South Africa.

       2

       The family's farm was raided by a vicious gang 2

       It wasn't the first time the farm had been ransacked

       The gang manhandled the screaming youngster into the oven, saying they would roast him as they thought his family were hiding cash from them.

       Cattle farmer Niel Bierman, 47, wife Sonja, 43, and sons Daniel, 13, Jacobus, 10, and Gideon, six, were ambushed on the farm which they have owned for the past 15 years.

       The family run a guesthouse on their land and on Saturday two men and a woman arrived at the door.

       Mother-of-three Sonja said seven men and a woman suddenly arrived at her home.

       "There was no time to react as they were armed with a shotgun and five pistols and tied Niel up," she explained.

       “They left my husband in the kitchen and took me to where the safes were kept and there was nothing I could do but pray out loud to the Lord asking him to protect us."

       They took her terrified sons Daniel, Jacobus and Gideon with them, then aimed their weapons at all four of them and threatened to open fire unless they opened the safes.

       Inside was a 7.65mm Browning pistol, a Browning rifle and a pellet gun, but no money or valuables - leading the gang to become enraged because they believed there was another hidden safe.

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       Sonja said: “I told them repeatedly that we do not keep money in the house but they did not believe me and as I tried to calm the children I heard a shot fired from inside the house.

       “I did not know if my husband was alive or dead and then they grabbed my youngest Gideon and took us off to the kitchen, where I found out that my husband had not been shot.

       “Niel was helpless and had to watch in fear as they opened the oven door and held Gideon and tried to push him into the oven, but he bravely fought back and wrestled them.

       “They finally gave up but still wanted money and I gave them my savings can and R200 (￡10) in my wallet and my eldest son gave them his wallet with a few rands inside.”

       By chance, a worker wandered up to the farm to get some feed for the chickens and saw what was happening. They ran off to raise the alarm, causing the gang to panic and run away.

       They took Niel’s bank cards and PIN codes, several mobile phones, the guns and the keys to their Isuzu pick-up truck, which they stole after tying up the rest of the family.

       Sonja said: “Once we were tied I did not know what would happen next. Were we in a queue to be executed? I just prayed to the Lord my children would not see me shot dead.”

       The gang are still on the run and the family are receiving counselling.

       Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubla confirmed the farm in Leeufontein had been ransacked various times by armed gangs.

       It is just one of a string of recent inhumane attacks on farmers, including one which saw an old woman tortured with a blowtorch while being held down.