Oscar Pistorius shoots girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, sobs in court

The hearing was delayed for two hours as his defence lawyers objected to the scrum of local and international reporters packed into the courtroom.

EMOTIONAL ICON

South African newspapers plastered the killing across their front pages, relegating a State of the Nation address by President Jacob Zuma in parliament to a distant second.

The coverage reflected shock and dismay at the fall of a sporting legend who commanded rare respect on all sides of South Africa's racial divides.

"Golden Boy Loses Shine" ran a front page headline in the Sowetan, beside a picture of Pistorius, head bowed in a grey hooded tracksuit being led away from a police station.

Callers to morning radio shows expressed remorse at the death of Steenkamp, who had been due to give a talk at a Johannesburg school this week about violence against women.

There was also widespread disbelief at the fate of a sportsman regarded as a genuinely "good guy".

"How is it possible for one so high to fall so low so quickly?" Talk Radio 702 host John Robbie said.

A 9 mm pistol was recovered from Pistorius's modern two-storey house in the middle of a heavily guarded gated complex in the northern outskirts of the South African capital.

He was held overnight at Pretoria's Boschkop police station after undergoing medical and forensic examinations, police said. Police have said they will oppose bail.

"He is doing well but very emotional" his lawyer, Kenny

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