A man accused of stealing a chocolate bar from a supermarket froze to death after being locked overnight in a freezer for 11 hours by security guards.

Bandile Shabalala, 33, had been seized as he was leaving the Shoprite shop in Ratanda township, Heidelberg, in Gauteng province, South Africa, and shut in the freezer apparently to teach him a lesson.

His frozen stiff body was found there the following morning on 20th May.

Police had to fight off furious demonstrators who besieged the Shoprite supermarket, where security guards fired rubber bullets into the stone-throwing crowd of locals and journalists.

Local media said that the victim was unemployed and had been with two friends who fled the scene when security guards grabbed him.

Several shoppers told local media that shoplifters are regularly locked inside the supermarket’s freezer but are normally released after about 30 minutes.

Police are investigating the death.