Cape Town: Seven people were killed in a suspected gang-related mass shooting, the second in two days in South Africa’s Western Cape province, local police reported on Friday.
According to a statement from the provincial police, the shooting occurred on Thursday evening in Bishop Lavis, a suburb of Cape Town.
“Police reports from the scene indicate that at about 8:40 p.m. (1840 GMT), an armed suspect entered an informal dwelling on Kogelberg Street and fired several shots at the occupants,” provincial police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said in the statement.
“Six people were fatally wounded, and two others were injured. The injured were transported to a medical facility for treatment,” she said. “The ages of the deceased range from 24 to 55”, Xinhua news agency reported.
However, the death toll rose to seven after one of the wounded, a 25-year-old woman, died in hospital on Friday morning, Potelwa said in an update.
Following the incident, local police have reinforced deployments in the area.
“Murder and attempted murder dockets have been opened, and Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detectives are investigating. No arrests have been made yet,” said Potelwa.
This latest shooting follows another mass shooting on Wednesday night, where five people were shot and killed in Atlantis, a small town about 40 km north of Cape Town.
Both incidents are believed to be gang-related, according to Potelwa. Western Cape’s Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile has directed AGU detectives to “spare no resources in bringing the perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice,” added the spokesperson.
The neighbouring Eastern Cape province has also seen a series of recent mass shootings, with more than 30 people losing their lives.
In the most recent incident, five men were found dead in an informal settlement in New Brighton town in Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, on Tuesday night. Prior to that, another mass shooting in Bityi killed five family members and injured two children on Oct. 18.
These incidents come just over two weeks after six community patrollers were brutally gunned down in Qumbu, and less than a month after 18 people were shot dead in Lusikisiki, both in the Eastern Cape province.
Several suspects have been arrested and charged in connection with the Lusikisiki incident.
–IANS