“He left in the morning under supervision of our officials and by 20-minutes-past-one he was back at the facility,” Correctional Services spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo told AFP.

He was driven from Atteridgeville prison in Pretoria after he had been granted permission to bury his maternal grandmother‚ Joyce Bekker, who according to local media, died last week aged 93.

The funeral took place in Johannesburg’s northern Bryanston’s suburb.

Nxumalo said there was nothing special about Pistorius being let out because regulations permit low-risk prisoners compassionate leave to attend the funerals of, or visit critically ill direct family members.

Earlier this month Pistorius was removed from prison and kept in a hospital overnight after he had reportedly complained of chest pains.

Pistorius, 30, is serving a six-year jail term for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, in his Pretoria home in 2013.

The “Blade Runner”, as the double amputee sprinter was known, has always maintained that he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder when he fired four high-calibre bullets through a locked toilet cubicle. DM