Police officers keep watch after cleaning debris and rocks, that littered the street, after demonstrators blocked one of the main roads during a protest over electricity and service delivery in Soweto, South Africa, June 20, 2022. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
At least 15 people have been shot dead in Orlando East tavern, Soweto township, South Africa.
According to BBC, several more people are in critical condition at the hospital following the shooting.
Eyewitnesses said the attackers entered the bar in the early hours of Sunday and started firing randomly at a group of young people before they fled the scene in a white minibus.
The police said they are yet to establish the motive behind the attack.
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Elias Mawela, head of police of Gauteng province, described the incident as “a cold-blooded attack on innocent tavern patrons.”
He added that the attackers were armed with rifles and 9mm pistols when they entered the bar.
“Primary investigations suggest the people were enjoying themselves in the tavern,” the police chief said.
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“They just came in and shot at them randomly. All of a sudden, they heard some gunshots, that is when people tried to run out of the tavern. We don’t have the full details at the moment of what is the motive and why they were targeting these people. You can see that a high-calibre firearm was used and it was shooting randomly. You can see that every one of those people was struggling to get out of the tavern.
“The number of cartridges found on the scene indicated it was a group of people who shot at the patrons.”
In another shooting incident at a bar in the south-eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, four other people were killed.
The police are yet to make any arrests on both shootings.
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