The third witness in the trial of murder accused Oscar Pistorius said he heard three gunshots the evening the paralympian shot and killed his girlfriend.

"I was awakened by three loud bangs. My wife asked me what it was and I said it sounded like gunshots," Johann Stipp told the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday.

He lives at the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria, the same complex where Pistorius lived and shot dead Reeva Steenkamp.

Stipp said that on February 14, 2013, he heard screams coming from Pistorius's home.

"The woman screamed like three or four times," he said.

He then went back into the bedroom where he called security.

Stipp was the second resident of the Silver Woods Country Estate to testify in the trial that began on Monday.

The State will try to prove that Pistorius committed premeditated murder when he shot and killed Steenkamp through the locked bathroom door at his home.

In addition, he is charged with the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Pistorius's lawyers will argue that he mistook her for an intruder when he shot through the bathroom door.