Nine people have been killed and at least 10 others were wounded in a mass shooting at a pub near Johannesburg in South Africa.
The incident occurred just before 1am local time outside the Kwanoxolo bar in Bekkersdal, a township 28 miles outside the country’s largest city.
It is the second mass shooting to happen in South Africa in three weeks.
About 12 unknown suspects in a white minibus and a silver car opened fire at pub patrons at the bar, in the Tambo section of Bekkersdal, and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene, according to police.
‘Some victims were randomly shot in the streets by unknown gunmen,’ the police said of the incident that left nine people dead and 10 in hospital.
Provincial police commissioner Major General Fred Kekana told SABC television that one of the deceased was a driver from an online car-hailing service who had been outside the pub.
He also told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the perpetrators, armed with pistols and one AK-47, were ‘unprovoked’.
‘The poor patrons were just enjoying themselves when people came and shot,’ he said.
Nine people have been killed and at least 10 others were wounded in a mass shootingat a pub near Johannesburg in South Africa
About 12 unknown suspects in a white minibus and a silver car opened fire at pub patrons at the bar, in the Tambo section of Bekkersdal, and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene, according to police
Two of the victims were shot outside the tavern as they tired to flee and a third was a taxi driver who had dropped off a passenger nearby
The incident occurred just before 1am local time outside the Kwanoxolo bar in Bekkersdal, a township 28 miles outside the country’s largest city
Two of the victims were shot outside the tavern as they tired to flee and a third was a taxi driver who had dropped off a passenger nearby, Maj-Gen Kekana added.
Also speaking to Newzroom Afrika, one resident explained how gunfire had become a normal thing at night in the area.
‘Criminals, they do as they please here,’ the unnamed man said.
‘These guns, they sound each and every evening… as soon as it’s dusk we know that gunshots are about to sound and they will sound severely.
‘It is terrorising our communities.’
A manhunt for the suspects has now been initiated by Gauteng Serious and Violent Crime Investigations in collaboration with the Crime Detection Tracing Unit.
There have been several mass shootings at bars – sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa – in recent years, including a mass shooting carried out by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital that left at least 12 people dead and 13 injured earlier this month.
Another shooting killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022.
On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
With almost 26,000 homicides in 2024, or more than 70 per day on average, South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
Although the nation of 62 million has comparatively stringent gun control laws, officials say many murders are carried out using illegal firearms.
