South Africa: Several People Shot At Hostel In Atteridgeville, Says Report | World News

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has confirmed that the death toll in a fatal shooting in Pretoria on Saturday has risen to 11. The incident took place at the Saulsville Hostel in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, on Saturday. According to local media reports, the incident occurred just after 4.15am, but police were only notified at around 6am.

A statement released by the SAPS said: “25 were shot, 11 confirmed, 14 people survived and all are in hospital. The South African Police Service has launched a manhunt for three unknown suspects. The dead include three minors, including boys aged 3 and 12, and a 16-year-old woman. The remainder of those killed are adults. The incident occurred in an illegal shebeen.”

“We immediately mobilized 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 Mathé’s statement, IOL reported that at least three unidentified gunmen entered the hostel where a group of people were drinking and started shooting randomly. The SAPS spokesperson also highlighted the huge challenges posed by illegal and unlicensed drinking establishments.

“Between April and September this year, we closed 11,975 unlicensed liquor outlets across the country and arrested more than 18,676 people found selling illegal liquor,” the official was quoted as saying by IOL.

In a separate incident last month, seven people were killed in a mass shooting in Cape Town, South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The incident occurred on the R53 Road in Philippi East, a suburb in Cape Town’s Cape Flats district; here, seven men ages 20 to 30 were fatally shot in what authorities described as a “senseless act of violence.”

According to IANS, after Jo’burg, Cape Town has also seen an increase in gun violence and gang-related murders in recent months; This has led to warnings from civil society that the Western Cape Province, of which Cape Town is the capital, is facing a full-blown crisis.

(With inputs from IANS)