A 60-year-old retired teacher in South Africa has been swindled out of 800,000 rand ($43,000; £35,000) of her pension money in a dating scam, police have said.

The woman had been duped by a man she was dating into believing that a fortune of 3.8m rand awaited her following the intervention of "ancestors".

The man "kept on asking for money in order to redeem her fortune".

She paid more than 800,000 rand but he then vanished, police said.

The incident occurred in Polokwane, the main city in South Africa's northern Limpopo province.

A "rapid increase" in dating scams had been reported in the province, with well-off single or widowed women targeted, police said.