metro

Gunmen ambush family in South African homestead, kill 10

Gunmen ambush family in South African homestead, kill 10

Gunmen stormed a homestead in a township outside the South African city of Pietermaritzburg and ambushed a family, killing 10 people, police said on Friday.

Police did not give a motive for the shooting, but said in a statement that they had arrested two suspects believed to have been involved in the incident, in which seven women and three men died.

A third suspect escaped, while a fourth was fatally shot when confronted by officers, the police said.

The identity of the suspects was not immediately known.

The youngest of the victims was a 13-year-old boy.

READ ALSO:

South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with about 20,000 murders recorded every year out of a population of 60 million.

“It’s a crime scene, terrible. Too many people were lost here,” Police Minister Bheki Cele said in comments broadcast on public broadcaster SABC from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province.

Cele said police management needed to sit down to talk about whether the province needed more police resources.

A Reuters photojournalist at the scene of the shooting saw a mortuary van in the yard of the homestead into which bodies of those killed were being loaded on a stretcher. Worried members of the community looked on.

According to campaign group Gun Free South Africa, 30 people on average are shot and killed every day in the country, where about 4.5 million guns are registered.

Gunmen killed eight people and wounded three others at a birthday party in the city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape in January, following a spate of mass gun attacks last year.

Reuters.

Trends Admin

Recent Posts

If Nigeria Is Not Divided, We Will Never Have Any Sense in the North

If Nigeria Is Not Divided, We Will Never Have Any Sense in the North  …

2 hours ago

TRUMP SAYS IRAN DEAL ‘ALL SIGNED’ AS STRAIT OF HORMUZ PARTIALLY REOPENS

TRUMP SAYS IRAN DEAL ‘ALL SIGNED’ AS STRAIT OF HORMUZ PARTIALLY REOPENS   President Donald…

3 hours ago

Abdulsalami Opens Up on Secret Detention of MKO Abiola

Abdulsalami Opens Up on Secret Detention of MKO Abiola Nearly three decades after the death…

4 hours ago

UK Announces Social Media Ban for Children Under 16

UK Announces Social Media Ban for Children Under 16 The United Kingdom has announced plans…

4 hours ago

Atiku Camp Rejects Court-Ordered ADC Deregistration, Alleges Plot to Cripple Opposition

Atiku Camp Rejects Court-Ordered ADC Deregistration, Alleges Plot to Cripple Opposition ABUJA — The camp…

5 hours ago

BREAKING: Kenneth Okonkwo Withdraws Support for Atiku

BREAKING: Kenneth Okonkwo Withdraws Support for Atiku Former presidential spokesperson of the Labour Party Presidential…

6 hours ago