A 26-year-old man, reportedly Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, has been arrested for allegedly shooting a woman dead in a house in Silverlakes, Pretoria, Gauteng police said on Thursday.

"Paramedics declared the woman dead on the scene and police proceeded with their investigation. The woman sustained wounds to her head and the upper body," spokeswoman Lt-Col Katlego Mogale said.

Mogale would not confirm an earlier news report that Pistorius was the shooter.