CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A mass shooting Saturday by multiple suspects at an unlicensed bar near South Africa's capital left at least 11 people dead, police said. The victims included three children, ages 3, 12 and 16.
Another 14 people were injured and taken to hospital, according to a South African police statement. Police did not provide details about the age of the victims or their condition.
The shooting happened at a hostel bar in the village of Saulsville, west of the administrative capital Pretoria, early on Saturday morning. Ten victims died on the spot, and the 11th 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 looking for three male suspects.
“We were informed that at least three unknown armed men entered the hostel where a group of drunken people were staying and began shooting randomly,” said police spokesman Brig. Atlenda Mate told national broadcaster SABC about this. According to her, the motive for the murder is not clear. According to her, the shooting happened around 4.15 am, but the police were not alerted until 6 am.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with more than 26,000 murders recorded in 2024 – an average of more than 70 per day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun laws, but authorities say many killings are committed using illegal weapons.
There have been several mass shootings in bars, sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa, in recent years, including one that killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
Mathe said mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem, and between April and September of this year, police closed more than 11,000 illegal taverns and arrested more than 18,000 people for their involvement in illegal liquor sales.
However, recent massacres in South Africa were not limited to bars. Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings within minutes of each other at two houses on the same road in rural Eastern Cape province in September last year.
Seven people were arrested and face multiple murder charges in connection with the shootings, and police recovered three AK-style rifles they believe were used in the shootings.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
