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A mass shooting by multiple suspects Saturday at an unlicensed bar near south african At least 12 people died in the capital, Police Said. The victims include three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
Another 13 people were injured and are being treated in hospital. Police did not provide details of the ages or conditions of those injured.
Police adjusted the death toll when they said a 12th victim died in hospital.
The shooting occurred at a bar inside a hostel in Soulsville township, west of the administrative capital. pretoria In the early hours of Saturday. Ten victims died at the scene and two others died in hospital, police said.
The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they are searching for three male suspects.
“We are told that at least three unidentified gunmen entered the hostel where a group of people were drinking and started firing randomly,” said police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe told the national broadcaster SABCHe said the motive for the killings was not clear, The firing took place around 4,15 am, he said, but the police were alerted only at 6 am
South Africa has the highest murder rate in the world and is expected to record more than 26,000 murders in 2024 – an average of more than 70 per day. By far the leading cause of death in homicides is firearms.
Authorities say gun ownership laws are relatively strict in the country of 62 million people, but many murders are committed with illegal guns.
In recent years there have been several mass shootings at bars – sometimes called shebeens or pubs in South Africa – including one that killed 16 people. johannesburg colony of soweto In 2022. The same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
Mathe said mass shootings at unlicensed bars were becoming a serious problem and police had closed more than 11,000 illegal taverns and arrested more than 18,000 people for their involvement in illegal liquor sales between April and September this year.
However, recent mass killings in South Africa have not been confined to bars. Police said 18 people, 15 of them women, were killed in the mass shooting that took place minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural area. Eastern Cape Province in September last year.
Seven people were arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder for those shootings, while police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they believe were used in the shootings.