Manhunt underway for 17 dead in mass shooting in South Africa

CNN
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A manhunt is underway after 17 people who lived on the same street in a South African village were killed in a mass shooting, police said Saturday.

Two houses were targeted in the shootings early Saturday in the village of Ngobozana in Lusikisiki in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, the country’s police ministry said in a statement, adding that six people, including a two-month-old baby, took part in the attack would have survived.

“Four people were shot in the first homestead, there were no survivors,” the police statement said.

“In the second farm, 19 people lived in two different houses in the same farm. Thirteen people were shot,” it continued. A total of 15 women and two men were killed.

A team of detectives and forensic experts have been deployed “to bring together all the evidence to catch these brutal criminals,” police said of the search for the murderers.

Mass shootings are common in South Africa, where the murder rate is at its highest in 20 years. The country also has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

According to recent police data, more than 6,000 people were murdered across the country between April and June this year.

The police ministry said more than 53,000 suspects wanted for violent crimes including murder were arrested and over 400 illegal and unregistered firearms were seized last month.