SOWETO: Nineteen people are dead after armed assailants randomly shot at patrons in two bars in South Africa in separate incidents denounced by the president as “unacceptable and worrying”.
In Soweto, 15 people – among them two women – were killed as they enjoyed a night out, police said, when assailants pulled up in a minibus taxi and began randomly firing high-calibre guns at drinkers.
In the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province four people were killed and eight wounded in a bar when two men fired indiscriminately at customers.
Shootings are common in South Africa, a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol.
But the similar modus operandi in the weekend killings has left investigators puzzled.
“As a nation, we cannot allow violent criminals to terrorise us in this way, regardless of where such incidents may occur,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
The violent deaths are “unacceptable and worrying” he added, offering condolences for the lives lost under “similar circumstances” in Soweto and Pietermaritzburg.
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