South Africa: Seventeen people have been killed in a mass shooting in a remote South African town with a manhunt under way to find the perpetrators.
South African police on Saturday said they were launching a manhunt after 17 people were shot dead in a town in the east of the country.
Two homesteads on the same street in the town of Lusikisiki, in the Eastern Cape, were targeted, police said, with 12 women and one male slain at one place, and three women and one man at a second location.
According to the South African Police Service, the 18th victim is in critical condition in the hospital.Senzo Mchunu, the minister of police, is expected to pay a visit to the scene of the attack. The dead at Nyathi village, Ngobozana, Lusikisiki, were neighbours and relatives.
The South African media, said the victims had gathered at the homes in anticipation of holding the traditional memorial service for a mother and daughter who were killed a year prior., they had been putting together gifts and items, including furniture, for the occasion when the incident happened on Friday night.
We heard gunshots and doors that were kicked,” Nomnikelo Ndlovu, a resident who managed to hide throughout the incident, according to SABC, the official state broadcaster.
Three of us were shot when we attempted to hide. We continue to suffer from trauma.
In a statement, the police minister said that there had been a total of 19 people sleeping in two homes in the same yard at one of the shooting locations.
Mchunu added that there had been six survivors at that homestead – four women, a man, and a two-month-old child. A police spokesperson said earlier that the child was uninjured, but had been taken to hospital as a precaution.
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Mchunu said a team of detectives and forensic experts, including crime scene managers from Pretoria, had been deployed to piece all [the] evidence together in a bid to apprehend these brutal criminals”.
Officials have yet to determine the motive behind the attack or make any arrests. Regional cabinet member for community safety, Xolile Nqatha, told the media that he hoped the critically injured man would make a “speedy” recovery, as his recovery can help us shed more light on the shooting.
He also suggested that the assailants may have been known to the victims.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
There were more than 27,000 murders in 2022 – amounting to 45 people per 100,000, out of a population of almost 60 million. By comparison, the US rate is six per 100,000.x2
In one house, 13 people were killed — 12 women and one man. In another, four people were killed. An 18th victim is in critical condition in a hospital,” the police said in a statement.
South African media said the mass shootings occurred Friday night in the town of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape province about 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Durban.
We do not know the motive and we do not know if there is one or several suspects on the run. South African police chief Fannie Masemola said
