Tragedy strikes a South African town as two mass shootings leave 17 people dead. Authorities are investigating the incidents as the nation mourns the loss. Learn more about this devastating event.
Seventeen people, including 15 women, were killed in two shootings near rural South Africa towns on Saturday, police said. National police spokesman Brigadier General Atrenda Mate said in a statement that a search for suspects was ongoing. The victims included 15 women and two men. Another person was in a critical condition in hospital.
The shootings happened on Friday night in the town of Lusikisiki in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. According to video released by police, the shootings happened at two houses in the same farm district on the city’s outskirts.
Police said 12 women and one man were killed in one house and three women and one man in the other.
Four women, one man and a two-month-old baby survived.
“An investigation has been launched to catch the perpetrators of these heinous murders,” Mathe said.
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Local media reported that the men had been attending a family gathering at the time of the shooting, but the motive for the killing remains unclear.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said at a press conference on Saturday that a team of detectives and forensic experts had been sent.
“We have full confidence in the team that has been sent to solve this case and find the perpetrators. Either they turn themselves in or we catch them ourselves,” Mchunu said.
South Africa, a country of 62 million people, recorded 12,734 murders in the first half of the year, according to official police crime statistics. That averages more than 70 cases per day. In these cases, firearms are the most common cause of death.
Mass shootings have become increasingly frequent in recent years, sometimes striking people in their own homes.
In April 2023, a mass shooting at a home in neighboring KwaZulu-Natal killed 10 members of a family, including seven women and a 13-year-old boy.
South Africa has relatively strict gun laws, but authorities often cite the large number of illegal, unregistered weapons in circulation as a major problem.
