Seventeen people lost their lives in two mass shootings in close proximity to each other in a rural town in South Africa. Police are searching for the suspects.
National police spokesman Brigadier General Athlenda Mathe said in a statement that the victims are 15 women and two men, one person is in critical condition in hospital. The shooting occurred on Friday night in the town of Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape province in southeastern South Africa.
Police released a video showing the shooting took place in the same neighbourhood, which is a cluster of rural homesteads on the outskirts of the town. Twelve women and a man were killed in one house and three women and a man were killed in the other.
South Africa suffers from one of the highest murder rates in the world, and in recent years mass shootings have become increasingly common. Murders are even occurring in people’s own homes. For example, earlier this month, unidentified gunmen shot dead seven members of one family, including three children, in a murder in their home in rural South Africa, police said.
Another case occurred last year. Seven women and three men (all from the same family) lost their lives in an attack outside the South African town of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal, and the youngest was a 13-year-old boy, police said.
