manhunt in the wake of a 17-person mass shooting in South Africa.
A manhunt is underway to find the perpetrators of a mass shooting that left seventeen dead in a small South African town, according to the police.
According to police, two homesteads in the Eastern Cape town of Lusikisiki were targeted; three women and one man were slain at one location, and twelve women and one man were killed at another.
According to the South African Police Service, the 18th victim is in critical condition in the hospital.
Senzo Mchunu, the minister of police, is anticipated to pay a visit to the scene of the attack.According to South African media, the victims in Nyathi village, Ngobozana, Lusikisiki, were neighbors and relatives.
They said the group had been gathered at the houses to prepare to attend a traditional mourning ceremony for a mother and daughter who were murdered a year ago.
The victims had been packing goods and presents, including furniture, for the event when the attack occurred on Friday night, according to the media reports.
Local mayor of Ingquza Hil, Nonkosi Pepping, was quoted by Dispatch Live as saying: “The gunmen arrived and opened fire at random. The community is terrified as a result.”
Brigadier Athlenda Mathe, a spokesman for the South African Police Service, informed Newzroom Afrika that at one of the shooting sites, 19 people were sleeping in two different homes.
Six people, she said, had survived at one homestead: a man, four women, and a two-month-old baby who was unharmed but was brought to the hospital out of caution. At the other homestead, there were none left alive.
Neither the motive nor any arrests have been made by the authorities yet.
“We have a team of detectives that is already on the ground,” Brig. Mathe stated. A group of specialists from Pretoria is making their way to Lusikisiki to conduct an investigation and gather all relevant data in order to identify and potentially detain the perpetrators of these senseless assaults.”
Xolile Nqatha, a cabinet member for community safety, expressed his hopes for the critically injured man’s “speedy” recovery to state broadcaster SABC, saying that “his recovery can help us shed more light” on the shooting.
Additionally, he made the suggestion that the victims might have known the attackers.
