A FREE State farmer was buried in a shallow grave after being attacked on his Reitz farm yesterday, said local police.

Sergeant Mmako Mophireng said police were alerted by the farmer's son when he became suspicious after a stranger had answered a telephone call to his parent's home. Police arrived to find two women tied up, but no sign of the farmer.

It was during a search of the farmyard that they discovered the shallow grave in which the farmer's body was buried. Mophireng said two people had been arrested at an informal settlement in Reitz. One had apparently worked on the farm a few days ago.