About a dozen gunmen shot up a tavern in a township outside Johannesburg early Sunday, killing at least nine and wounding 10, the South African Police Service said.
It was the second mass shooting in the country this month.
Just before 1 a.m. Sunday, gunmen in a white minivan and a silver sedan pulled up in front of KWA Noxolo tavern in Bekkersdal, South African, Police Service spokesperson Brenda Muridili said.
Toting several 9-millimeter pistols and an AK-47-style assault rifle, the assailants burst inside and opened fire, acting provincial commissioner of Gauteng, Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana, told The Associated Press at the scene. Some of them wore balaclavas, he noted.
They killed three people inside before rushing into the street shooting indiscriminately, slaying six more, Kekana told reporters Sunday, according to ABC News. Fatalities included a ride-hailing driver who had just dropped off a client, police said. All 10 wounded were hospitalized.
They “opened fire at tavern patrons and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene,” police said in a statement. “Some victims were randomly shot in the streets by unknown gunmen.”
AP Photo/ Alfonso Nqunjana
Police gather at the scene of a mass shooting where gunmen killed nine and injured at least 10 in a pub in Bekkersdal, South Africa, on Sunday. (AP Photo/ Alfonso Nqunjana)
The licensed, informal tavern known as a shebeen is in the Tambo section of Bekkersdal, an impoverished township about 25 miles southwest of Johannesburg near some of the country’s major goldmines, according to Agence France-Presse.
The motive for the crime was unclear, police said, as they launched a manhunt for the gunmen. Witnesses told police the assailants searched the bodies of both dead and wounded, making off with cellphones and other valuables, ABC News reported.
“The police have mobilized all the necessary resources, including Forensic Crime Scene Management and Crime Intelligence,” the South Africa Police Force said. “The motive for the shooting will be determined by investigation.”
Police also asked that anyone with potentially helpful information reach out with what they know.
The attack was the second mass shooting in three weeks, after three gunmen burst into an illegal, unlicensed bar just west of Pretoria on Dec. 6 and opened fire. Three children — a 12-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy — were killed along with nine adults, while three people were wounded.
South Africa logged more than 26,000 homicides in 2024, or an average 70 per day, many of them committed with illegal firearms — one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Several mass shootings have occurred at shebeens.
With News Wire Services
