SOUTH African police have launched a manhunt after six people were killed and four others wounded in the latest mass shooting in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates.
The shooting took place on Tuesday evening in the Kwanobuhle township in the Eastern Cape province, on the outskirts of the town of Kariega where Volkswagen has a car plant. Three unknown men entered a yard in Kwanobuhle and opened fire, police said.
Two women were shot at the gate, one of whom succumbed to her injuries. A further eight people were shot, five of whom were killed.
Police said the injured had been taken to hospital. The motive for the killing was not yet known.
The Eastern Cape’s provincial police commissioner asked the local community to help the police find the killers.
“These criminals must not be allowed to roam our streets any longer hence we are appealing to the community of Kwanobuhle to work with the police,” Nomthetheleli Mene said.
About 20,000 murders are recorded every year in South Africa, out of a population of 60 million.
Recent mass gun attacks in South Africa include an ambush on a homestead in a township outside the South African city of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province in April, and another shooting in the Eastern Cape in January.
