Two armed gangs made simultaneous attempts last week to break into South Africa's main nuclear research facility, an official said on Tuesday.
Rob Adam, chief executive of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), said that a guard had been shot and wounded during one of the break-ins at the Pelindaba plant, west of Pretoria.
Another group of would-be intruders fled after a second member of security opened fire at them.
A computer was taken during the course of the first raid. The victim is now in a stable condition.
"My sense is that it must have been co-ordinated but there is no evidence of that yet," Adam told the Sapa news agency.
Adams denied that any nuclear installation at the site, including the research nuclear reactor, had been compromised by the breaches of security.
But Necsa had suspended the people managing security at the facility pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Sapa added.
