A mass shooting at a bar in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa left at least 15 people dead and nine more wounded on Sunday.
Gunmen barged into the establishment just after midnight and started “randomly” firing rifles and 9-millimeter pistols into the crowd, Gauteng Police said in a statement. The alleged perpetrators escaped in a white minibus, they added.
Police confirmed that 23 people were shot at the bar, twelve of whom succumbed to injuries and perished at the scene. Eleven others were taken to the hospital, some of whom are in critical condition. Two more people were pronounced dead at the hospital.
“The primary investigation suggests that these people were enjoying themselves here, in a licensed tavern operating within the right hours,” Gauteng province police commissioner Lt. Gen. Elias Mawela told the Associated Press.
“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,” Mawela added.
Mawela told the BBC that the incident appears to be “a cold-blooded attack on innocent tavern patrons.”
The police have launched probes into 14 cases of murder and nine cases of attempted murder, according to the statement.
Other major violent incidents have shaken the country in recent weeks. On Saturday night, four people were killed and eight others injured in a different shooting in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, local police said in a statement. In late June, over 20 teenagers were discovered dead at a nightclub in East London, South Africa. No official cases of death have since been determined or publicized, although some suspected the victims were either gassed or poisoned.
The United States has experienced similar tragedies in recent months, most harrowing being the May murder of 19 children and two teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.