South Africa, home to about 60 million people, is one of the world’s most violent countries with 20,000 people murdered every year, one of the highest per-capita murder rates globally.
Gunmen killed 19 people in two random shootings within hours of each other at taverns in South Africa, police said on Sunday, reinforcing the country’s bleak status as a global center for murder.
Attackers armed with rifles and pistols opened fire in the Orlando East bar in the township of Soweto in the early hours of Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding nine, police said. I’m so heartbroken,” said the 59-year-old gardener, adding that Sthemibiso’s girlfriend had arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting to find him still breathing.
Police confirmed a second apparently random shooting hours earlier, at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, in a tavern in Pietermaritzburg, 500 km southeast of Soweto, which saw four people killed and eight wounded.
Officers said they did not believe the two shootings were linked. The killers from both incidents are on the run, according to police, who said it was not clear how many attackers were involved in either shooting.
