Eight people were killed and three wounded when gunmen opened fire on a group of people at a birthday party in a South African township on Sunday, police said today.
“The owner of the house was celebrating his birthday when two unknown men, armed, entered” a house in the southern port city of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, on Sunday night, according to a statement. .
The attackers “randomly shot at the guests,” police said, adding that “eight people were killed while three are still fighting for their lives in hospital.”
The fatalities include the birthday boy and a person who succumbed to his injuries after being transported to hospital, the same source added.
Eastern Cape Provincial Police spokeswoman Priscilla Naidu said a manhunt for the suspects had begun, as well as an investigation into the circumstances of the attack.
“No arrests have been made so far and the identities of the dead and injured have not yet been confirmed,” Naidu was quoted as saying by the South African news portal IOL.
South Africa, one of the countries with one of the highest murder rates in the world, fueled by excessive alcohol consumption and violence from organized criminal groups, regularly reports shootings.
The country suffered a series of shootings in 2022, in which 22 people were killed in various taverns in Soweto, in the suburbs of Johannesburg, and in the city of Pietermaritzburg, capital of KwaZulu-Natal province, in the southeast.
Source: TSF
