Gunmen kill 12, including three-year-old, in Pretoria hostel
Gunmen have stormed into a hostel in South Africa’s capital and killed at least 12 people, including a three-year-old child, and injured more than a dozen others. Police said they had launched a “manhunt” for three people and were investigating whether the killings were linked to a bar within the ho
Gunmen stormed a hostel in Pretoria’s Saulsville township in the early hours, killing at least 12 people — including a three-year-old child — and wounding more than a dozen others, police said.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said a total of 25 people were shot in the attack, with ten dying at the scene and two more succumbing to wounds in hospital. The twelfth victim died on Saturday afternoon. The victims included a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl.
Mathe said investigators have launched a manhunt for three suspects and are probing whether the killings were connected to a bar inside the hostel that may have been illegally selling alcohol. Forensic and ballistic teams were working at the scene.
Authorities said the gunmen fired indiscriminately. South Africa, with high levels of gun ownership and organized crime, has seen frequent deadly shootings, and police have long raised concerns about violence linked to illegal bars, known locally as shebeens, where homemade alcohol is sold.
“These illegal shebeens are really giving us a problem,” Mathe told a local broadcaster, noting that many murders are reported at such establishments.
Police data cited by local media show a persistently high national murder toll, with more than 60 people killed each day between April and September in the latest reporting period.
Investigations into the motive and identities of the attackers are ongoing.
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