In a tragic event at a South African bar, at least 11 people, including three children, were killed in a mass shooting on Saturday, police said. The incident occurred at a bar in a township near Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa.
Meanwhile, 14 people were wounded with gunshots and hospitalised for treatment, the statement from the South African Police Services added. The authorities shared no details of the injured.
The shooting took place at an unlicensed bar in the Saulsville township, west of Pretoria. Meanwhile, the three children killed are a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they were searching for three suspects.
Meanwhile, South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, recording more than 26,000 killings in 2024, which is an average of over 70 per day.
Despite relatively strict gun ownership laws in the nation, authorities say many murders are carried out with illegal firearms.
In recent years, the country has seen several mass shootings at bars - often referred to as shebeens or taverns - including a 2022 attack in the Soweto township of Johannesburg that left 16 people dead.
In September last year, police reported that 18 people, 15 of them women, were killed in mass shootings at two houses on the same road in a rural area of Eastern Cape province. A man was charged with 18 counts of murder for allegedly using an AK-style assault rifle in the attacks.
