JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Talk about your options. This baby is loaded.
Crime-obsessed South Africans fearful of carjackers have a potent new deterrent with which to protect their wheels: the car flamethrower.
Casting a man-high fireball with no damage to the paintwork, the aptly named Blaster has been fitted to 25 South African vehicles since its debut last month.
At 3,900 rand (US$655), it offers a cheap, dramatic defense against would-be carjackers. So far, its legality has not been challenged.
South African courts sanction lethal action if they can be persuaded that someone acted in defense of his or her life -- not unheard-of in a country with a high crime rate and one that reported more than 13,000 carjackings last year.
The Blaster fires liquefied gas from a bottle in the vehicle trunk through two nozzles, positioned under the front doors, which is then ignited by an electric spark, with ferocious consequences.
Both sides fire simultaneously, regardless of whether the attack is coming from just one side of the vehicle -- or whether passersby are on the other side.
"My personal feeling is that it would definitely blind a person -- he will never see again," said Charl Fourie, the Blaster's 33-year-old inventor.
But he dismissed fears that the flamethrower -- whose breadth and depth of blast can be adjusted to need -- could ever be responsible for a death.
"This is definitely non-lethal.... A person won't just stand there and let you roast him," he said.
Fourie has filed an international patent application and anticipates thousands of orders worldwide.
"The demand is huge," he told Reuters Television.
The Blaster's first buyer was Police Superintendent David Walkley of Johannesburg's crime intelligence unit, who is satisfied it is all aboveboard -- provided it is used correctly.
"There is nothing that says this is illegal. It depends entirely on the circumstances and whether you can justify self-defense," he said. "Yes, there are certain risks in using it, but there are also risks in not having anything at all."
