Cape Town: Ten family members from the same family were killed in a mass shooting at a house in South Africa, said police on Friday (April 21). The shooting happened Thursday night or early Friday morning. Police Minister Bheki Cele was due to visit the scene on Friday.
10 killed in mass shooting
Seven women and three men were gunned down after a group of unknown armed men stormed their home in the city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear. “According to initial police reports, unknown gunmen stormed a Pietermaritzburg homestead and ambushed the family,” police said in a statement.
Mass shootings common in South Africa
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and there has been a spate of mass shootings in recent years.
Eight people were fatally shot at a birthday party in the south coast city of Gqeberha in January. Last year, 16 died in a mass shooting at a bar in the Johannesburg township of Soweto when a group of armed men, some of them wielding rifles, opened fire on customers.
(With AP inputs)
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