Johannesburg, Aug 28 (DPA) A bishop was arrested Thursday for raping his three daughters aged nine, 17 and 18 at their home in the Vaal Triangle region of South Africa, police said.

'It is alleged that he has been raping his children since 2006 and threatened to kill them if they reported him,' a police spokesman told the South African news agency SAPA.

The bishop's wife reported the rape of the nine-year-old after the child complained of pains and admitted under questioning that her father had raped her. The older girls then told of their ordeal.

Police declined to reveal the name of the bishop's church but said he would appear at a magistrate's court in Vereeniging Friday to face three counts of rape.