A mass taking pictures carried out Saturday by a number of suspects in an unlicensed bar close to the South African capital left not less than 11 folks lifeless, police mentioned, together with three kids.
The youngsters killed have been a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old woman, the South African Police Providers mentioned on social media. They didn’t give the ages of the opposite victims. Police mentioned they have been looking for three male suspects.
One other 14 folks have been wounded and brought to the hospital, in accordance with the SAPS assertion. Police did not give particulars on the ages of those that have been injured or their circumstances.
The taking pictures occurred at an unlawful bar inside a hostel within the Saulsville township, west of the executive capital of Pretoria, within the early hours of Saturday. Ten of the victims died on the scene and the eleventh died on the hospital, police mentioned.
“We’re advised that not less than three unknown gunmen entered this hostel the place a bunch of individuals have been ingesting they usually began randomly taking pictures,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe advised nationwide broadcaster SABC. She mentioned the motive for the killings was not clear. The shootings occurred at round 4.15 a.m., she mentioned, however police have been solely alerted at 6 a.m.
South Africa has one of many highest murder charges on this planet and recorded greater than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — a mean of greater than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the main reason for dying in homicides.
The nation of 62 million folks has comparatively strict gun possession legal guidelines, however many killings are dedicated with unlawful weapons, authorities say.
There have been a number of mass shootings at bars — typically referred to as shebeens or taverns in South Africa — lately, together with one which left eight folks lifeless within the southeast metropolis of Durban just some months in the past. In September 2024, 17 folks have been killed in two incidents in the identical rural city. A bar taking pictures in Johannesburg’s Soweto township left 16 folks lifeless in 2022.
Mathe mentioned that mass shootings at unlicensed bars have been changing into a significant issue and police had shut down greater than 11,000 unlawful taverns between April and September this 12 months and arrested greater than 18,000 folks for involvement in unlawful liquor gross sales.
Latest mass killings in South Africa haven’t been confined to bars, nevertheless. Police mentioned 18 folks have been killed, 15 of them ladies, in mass shootings minutes aside at two homes on the identical street in a rural a part of Japanese Cape province in September final 12 months.
Seven males have been arrested for these shootings and face a number of fees of homicide, whereas police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they imagine have been used within the shootings.
