At least 17 dead in mass shooting at bar in South Africa, police say

At least 17 people have been killed in a mass shooting at a bar in South Africa‘s Gauteng, police said.

The South African Police Service said authorities have launched a manhunt to find eight armed men following the deadly shooting late on Saturday at a tavern in Wedela ​township ⁠southwest of ‌Johannesburg.

The suspects, armed with AK-47 rifles ⁠and pistols, entered the bar and began shooting at customers around 9.30pm local time, police said.

All 17 people, including four women, were shot and killed at the bar and declared dead at the scene by the ambulance service, police said.

The suspects allegedly targeted ⁠the tavern, opening fire ⁠on customers drinking outside and then moving ‌inside ​to continue shooting, the ‌police said.

Police said the suspects searched some victims and stole their mobile phones before fleeing the scene in two vehicles. Two other vehicles were also set ablaze during the shooting, police added.

Police said the motive behind the shooting was unknown. Fifteen others suffered gunshot wounds and were rushed to hospital for treatment.

No arrests have been ​made, the police said in a statement.

Soldiers from the national army and police pathologists arrived in the township, where two burnt vehicles could ‌be seen. The tavern where the shooting happened had a ‌sign that read “No weapons allowed” below its trading hours.

In a separate incident overnight, South African police said gunmen killed 10 people and wounded 11 more at an entertainment venue in Lwandle in Cape Town at 1.46am local time.

Five people died at the scene, while five others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital, police said. At least 11 others were undergoing medical treatment on Sunday afternoon.

“Detectives are hard at work in search of a perpetrators of the shooting incident, with no arrests yet,” the police said.

South Africa has a long history of mass shootings at bars and unlicensed taverns known as shebeens, which are linked to gang rivalries, extortion, or disputes tied to illegal liquor sales.

“South Africa has a serious illegal firearms problem, and firearms are frequently used by organised criminal groups as well as in gang-related and other violent crimes,” said crime expert Yusuf Abramjee.

“Every mass shooting should therefore trigger more than an investigation into the immediate perpetrators,” he told ‌Reuters. “Authorities need to look at the wider networks behind the violence.”

Last week, at least 12 people were killed, and two others suffered injuries in a shooting at a house in KwaMakhutha in southeastern KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Three armed men opened fire on 13 men and a woman believed to be pregnant when they were reportedly having a party inside the house.

The woman and 10 other men died at the scene, while one person succumbed to their injuries later at the hospital. Police have not ruled out gang rivalry as a possible motive.

These are the latest in a series of mass shootings in South Africa recently, including one in June when multiple shooters killed 12 people in a poor neighbourhood in Johannesburg that police linked to criminal gangs.

Two mass shootings two weeks apart in December last year killed 21 people. They were also carried out by multiple gunmen.

South Africa has extremely high rates of violent crime, with official police statistics recording 5,427 homicides in the latest three-month period between April and June at an average of nearly 60 homicides a day.

Shootings are the most common form of homicide in South Africa, and police and crime experts have long said that one of the biggest problems is that there are high numbers of illegal firearms in circulation.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the deployment of soldiers on the streets in some areas earlier this year to combat violent crime in what critics said was an admission that police were failing. Soldiers were deployed to areas around Johannesburg, Cape Town and in the Eastern Cape province on the south coast.