Pretoria mass shooting death toll climbs to 11; manhunt launched

The death toll from a mass shooting at an illegal shebeen in Pretoria has risen to 11, including three minors. SAPS has launched a manhunt for three gunmen, while 14 survivors remain hospitalised. The incident adds to South Africa’s growing gun-violence crisis.

Johannesburg: The number of people killed in a deadly shooting incident in Pretoria on Saturday has risen to 11, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed.

The incident took place at Saulsville Hostel in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, early Saturday. “25 shot, 11 confirmed dead, 14 survivors and all are in hospital. The South African Police Service has launched a manhunt for three unknown suspects. Three minors are among those deceased which include 3 and 12 year-old boys, 16-year-old female. The rest of those deceased are adults. The incident happened at an illegal shebeen,” read a statement issued by the SAPS.

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According the local media, the incident occurred just after 4:15 am, but police were only alerted around 6 am. “We immediately mobilised our resources, including forensic and ballistics experts, who were already at the scene. Our detectives and the Serious and Violent Crime Unit are piecing together information on what may have led to this shooting,” the country’s leading media outlet Independent Online (IOL) quoted SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe as saying.

Citing Mathe’s statement, the IOL reported that at least three unknown gunmen entered the hostel, where a group of people were drinking, and began shooting randomly. The SAPS spokesperson also highlighted the massive challenges being posed by illegal and unlicensed liquor premises. “Between April and September this year, we shut down 11,975 unlicensed liquor outlets nationwide and arrested more than 18,676 people found selling liquor illegally,” the official was quoted as saying by the IOL.

Last month, seven men were killed in a mass shooting in Cape Town, Western Cape Province of South Africa. The incident occurred on Road R53 in Philippi East, a suburb in Cape Town’s Cape Flats area, where seven men aged between 20 and 30 were fatally shot in what authorities described as a “senseless act of violence.”

After Jo’burg, Cape Town has also seen a surge in gun violence and gang-related killings in recent months, prompting warnings from civil society that the Western Cape Province, of which Cape Town is the capital city, is facing a full-blown crisis.

In September, mounting gun violence in Cape Town, which had claimed at least a dozen lives across the metropolis in over one week, prompted the local government to shut down selected minibus taxi routes for 30 days, Xinhua news agency had reported.