Twelve suspects are being questioned following the shooting of a police captain in Lynnwood Manor in Pretoria on Saturday night.

Captain Charl Scheepers was responding to calls that a house under construction was being robbed. He was accompanied by two other officers.

It is understood that when he ordered the suspects to drop their weapons, they opened fire on the officers instead, wounding Scheepers in the stomach.

"The captain was then rushed to hospital where he died this morning [Sunday]," said the police's Lynette Erasmus.