Nine people have died and at least 10 were wounded after a group of gunmen carried out a shooting at a South African pub during the early hours of yesterday, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 1am in the township of Bekkersdal, 46km west of Johannesburg. It is the second mass shooting to happen in South Africa in three weeks.
About 12 unknown suspects in a white minibus and a silver sedan opened fire at pub patrons at KwaNoxolo tavern, in the Tambo section of Bekkersdal, and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene, police said.
Photo: AP
“Some victims were randomly shot in the streets by unknown gunmen,” the police said.
Provincial police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana told SABC television that one of the deceased was a driver from an online car-hailing service who had been outside the pub.
A manhunt for the suspects of the shooting has been initiated by Gauteng Serious and Violent Crime Investigations in collaboration with the Crime Detection Tracing Unit.
There have been several mass shootings at bars — sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa — in recent years, including a mass shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital that left at least 12 people dead and 13 injured earlier this month.
Another shooting killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
With almost 26,000 homicides last year, or more than 70 per day on average, South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
Although the nation of 62 million has comparatively stringent gun control laws, officials said many murders are carried out using illegal firearms.
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