JOHANNESBURG — Twenty-seven people were killed in two mass shootings hours apart in South Africa, the latest surge of gun violence in a country already struggling with gang-related killings, BBC News reported.
Seventeen people died when eight gunmen stormed a bar near Johannesburg on Saturday evening, with 15 more injured; police said thirteen men and four women were among the dead. In a separate attack early Sunday near Cape Town, 10 people were killed outside an entertainment venue and 11 injured. No arrests had been made in either case by Sunday morning. Police have not publicly established motives, though a Johannesburg officer said the bar attack may have been retaliation for a shooting last month.
The killings came days after 11 people died when gunmen stormed a house in Durban’s KwaMakhutha township. South Africa records roughly 60 murders a day. President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year called organised crime “the most immediate threat to our democracy,” and the military has been deployed alongside police in high-murder areas.
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