Oscar Pistorius has been taken from prison to a public hospital with chest pains and will stay overnight for observation.

“He’s fine now,” Pistorius spokesman Johan van Wyk told the Associated Press.

Van Wyk says South African media reports that the former track star and convicted murderer had a suspected heart attack in jail were untrue.

Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic runner who is serving a six-year prison term for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend, was taken to the hospital Thursday morning and had been expected to return to the prison later the same day, Department of Corrections spokesman Logan Maistry said.

However, Pistorius will now stay overnight in the hospital “for observation”, Maistry said.

Maistry declined to give details of Pistorius’ medical complaint, citing department rules preventing the divulging of information about offenders.

He said only that Pistorius was having “medical examinations”.

But van Wyk confirmed that Pistorius had complained of chest pains and was taken to Kalafong Hospital in the South African capital, Pretoria.

Reports said he was rushed from Atteridgeville Prison to the hospital’s emergency department, escorted by armed guards. Maistry declined to comment on those reports.

This is the second time Pistorius has left jail for a hospital visit. Last year he was taken to the hospital for treatment to cuts on his wrists, which prison authorities said he sustained after falling in his cell.

Pistorius, the multiple Paralympic champion, has served a year of his sentence for the fatal shooting of girlfriend Reeva Steekamp.

– AAP