CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A mass taking pictures carried out Saturday by a number of suspects in an unlicensed bar close to the South African capital left no less than 12 folks lifeless, police mentioned. The victims included three kids aged 3, 12 and 16.
One other 13 folks have been wounded and being handled within the hospital. Police didn’t give particulars of the ages of those that have been injured or their situations.
Police adjusted the loss of life toll after they mentioned a twelfth sufferer died within the hospital.
The taking pictures occurred at a 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 two others died on the hospital, police mentioned.
The kids killed have been a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old woman. Police mentioned they have been looking for three male suspects.
“We’re advised that no 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 median of greater than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the main reason behind loss of life 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 — in recent times, together with one which killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the identical day, 4 folks have been killed in a mass taking pictures at a bar in one other province.
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.
Current 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 highway 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.
