Gunmen opened fireplace on a gaggle of individuals celebrating a birthday on the weekend in a township in South Africa, killing eight and wounding three others, police stated Monday.
The birthday celebrant was amongst these gunned down within the mass taking pictures within the southern port metropolis of Gqeberha, previously Port Elizabeth.
“The proprietor of the home was celebrating his birthday when two unknown gunmen entered the yard” on Sunday night “and began taking pictures on the visitors,” police stated in an announcement.
The gunmen “randomly shot at visitors,” police stated, including “eight individuals died whereas three others are nonetheless combating for his or her lives in hospital. The house proprietor is among the many deceased”.
The motive of the assault is but unknown.
Learn extra: Search and scare: A tiny radioactive capsule misplaced on Australian desert freeway
Nomthetheleli Mene, the provincial police chief for the Jap Cape province, condemned the killings as “a blatant disregard for human life”.
An investigation has been launched into the assault and police stated a manhunt for the perpetrators was underway.
Shootings are frequent in South Africa, which has one of many world’s highest homicide charges, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol.
South Africa final yr noticed string of shootings that killed almost two dozen at separate bars in working class suburbs in Johannesburg and within the japanese metropolis of Pietermaritzburg.
Police Minister Bheki Cele, the nationwide police commissioner Fannie Masemola, and crime consultants have been scheduled to go to the scene of the assault later Monday morning.