'While asleep, the boy (10) heard his younger brother (6) screaming. Their mother's lover was cutting his throat.. He punched and kicked the man, but was overpowered. The man then cut his throat too'

TWO young brothers are fighting for their lives in hospital after they were attacked while they were sleeping by their mother's boyfriend at the weekend.

The boys, aged six and 10 years, had their throats slit with a sharp object on Saturday in Meadowlands, Soweto, while their 31-year-old mother was at work.

The two are in a coma at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

The man is on the run.

Police spokesman Constable Sibusiso Chauke said they had launched a manhunt for the suspect. Chauke said they were investigating cases of attempted murder.

Police are yet to establish a motive for the attack.

According to their mother's cousin, the two lovers seemed to have been on good terms. The two siblings were "attacked for nothing" by their mother's 34-year-old lover.

The cousin said the 10-year-old boy was brave and had told the family of their ordeal.

"He said they were woken up by the man's knocks. The 10-year-old opened the door for him and he told them that he was going to spend the night with them because their mother had asked him to," she said.

"While asleep, the boy said he heard his younger brother screaming and saw their mother's lover on top of him, cutting his throat with a sharp object.

"He said he punched and kicked the man, but was overpowered. The man then turned on him and slit his throat too. The heroic boy managed to flee and crawled to an outside room, where our aunt was sleeping.

Their sobbing mother said: "I will never forget what I saw. The one boy lay in a pool of blood on the bed while the other one was at our aunt's room pleading for help."

She said since Saturday the man had been contacting her and threatening to kill them all.

"While we were in hospital with the children, he phoned and apologised. Later, he called and said he was in Rustenburg (North West) and was going to return to kill us. He was boasting to us about what he did," she said.

She said on Sunday after they had returned from hospital, three men stopped outside their gate and pointed fingers at them. She claimed that they later received phone calls from men who threatened to attack them if their friend was arrested.

"We are all scared that he is somewhere and ready to attack us any time. We are not safe at all," she said.