A manhunt is underway in South Africa in which 18 people have been killed in the Eastern Cape

Eighteen people have been killed in a mass shooting in a remote South African town as a manhunt is underway for the perpetrators, police said.

According to police, two farmsteads on the same street in the Eastern Cape town of Lusikisiki were attacked. In one place twelve women and one man were killed, in a second place three women and one man were killed.

The 18th victim died in hospital on Sunday, South African police said.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said the motive for the shootings was unknown.

In a statement on Sunday, police said there were no other new developments other than the death of the 18th person. So far there have been no arrests.

Officials said the victims were relatives and neighbors in Nyathi village, Ngobozana in Lusikisiki.

South African media reported that the victims had gathered in their homes to prepare for the traditional mourning ceremony for a mother and daughter murdered a year ago.

According to media reports, they had been packing goods and gifts, including furniture, for the event when the attack occurred on Friday evening.

“We heard shots and doors being kicked in,” Nomnikelo Ndlovu, one of the residents who managed to hide during the attack, told state broadcaster SABC.

“We tried to hide and three people were shot. We are still traumatized.”

In a statement on Saturday, the police minister said a total of 19 people were sleeping in two houses in the same yard at one of the shooting sites.

Mchunu added that there were six survivors at the homestead – four women, a man and a two-month-old child. A police spokesman previously said the child was uninjured but was taken to hospital as a precaution.

There were no survivors on the other farm.

Mchunu said a team of detectives and forensic experts, including crime scene managers from Pretoria, had been deployed “to piece together all the evidence to arrest these brutal criminals”.

Regional cabinet member for community safety Xolile Nqatha told the SABC he hoped the seriously injured man would recover “quickly” as “his recovery can help us shed more light on the shooting”.

He also suspected that the attackers may have been known to the victims.

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

There were more than 27,000 murders in 2022 – that’s 45 people per 100,000 people out of a population of almost 60 million. In comparison, the rate in the United States is six per 100,000.

Additional reporting by Aleks Phillips