Johannesburg, April 22 (BNA): Ten members of the same family, including seven females and a 13-year-old boy, were killed in a mass shooting at a house in South Africa, according to the police today, Friday.
A man suspect was killed in a shootout with police hours later and two men were arrested. The Associated Press (AP) reports that a fourth suspect has fled but his identity is known and a search is underway.
Police said gunmen ambushed the family at a house in Pietermaritzburg, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, according to initial reports. The shooting took place in the predawn hours of Friday.
Police initially announced that the victims were seven women and three men, but later said that at least one child, a boy, was among the dead.
Seely said the shooting’s oldest victim was 65 and the youngest was 13. He did not give the ages of the other victims.
Seely, who was at the scene, said police confronted four men on a street about a mile from the home where the mass shooting occurred and the men shot the officers.
The police responded, killing one person, wounding one, and arresting another, who was arrested unharmed. Seely said. Fortunately, they know who escaped.
The police seized three guns.
Seely said the suspect killed by police was “notorious” and linked to other crimes in the area, though he did not provide a motive for the mass shooting.
Seely said the scene in the house where the Ten were killed was “terrible”.
He said, “A lot of people have lost.”
Police also questioned the driver of an e-taxi that is believed to have transported the four men before when they were alleged to have committed other offences.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and there have been a series of mass shootings in recent years.
Eight people were shot dead at a birthday party in the southern port city of Jekyberha in January. Last year, 16 people were killed in a mass shooting at a pub in the Johannesburg town of Soweto when a group of armed men, some carrying rifles, opened fire on patrons.
On the same day as the shooting in Soweto, 12 people were killed, four of them fatally, in a pub in Pietermaritzburg.
AOQ