At least 27 people were killed and 26 wounded in a series of overnight shootings in South Africa.
Gunmen opened fire at a tavern in Wedela township, about 80 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg, at around 9:30 p.m. the previous day, killing 17 people and wounding 15, according to The Associated Press and other foreign media on the 27th, local time. Local police believe eight armed assailants carried out the attack.
Wedela township was established as a residential area for non-white residents during apartheid, the system of racial segregation. The assailants, carrying AK-47 rifles and handguns, fired indiscriminately at people inside and outside the tavern, then stole mobile phones and other belongings from the victims before fleeing the scene in two vehicles, reports said.
About four hours after the first attack, at 1:46 a.m. on the 27th, an assailant broke into a shop in Lwandle township on the outskirts of Cape Town and sprayed gunfire, killing 10 people and injuring 11.
Police said they are tracking suspects in both cases but that no arrests have been made so far.
Similar shootings have occurred repeatedly in South Africa in recent weeks. On the 22nd, three assailants broke into a house where a party was underway in KwaMakhutha township south of Durban and opened fire, killing 11 people, including a woman believed to have been pregnant, and wounding three.
Violent crime is seen as a chronic problem in South Africa. Local police recorded a total of 5,427 murders over the three months from April to June this year, or about 60 killings a day.
Separately, in the Ekurhuleni area near Johannesburg, the bodies of 10 women have been found along roadsides and other locations over the past two months or so, and police are investigating, leaving open the possibility of a serial killer.
