A total of eight people were killed and two others hurt after gunmen burst into a room at a men’s hostel near the eastern South African city of Durban, marking the latest mass shooting in the country.
The police revealed that seven men were declared dead immediately after the shooting in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday in the Umlazi township, while the eighth man died on Sunday.
Meanwhile, two persons are hospitalized with injuries. They include a man who jumped out of the window of the hostel room to escape the gunfire.
Police authorities announced that 12 men were in the room drinking alcohol when several gunmen broke in, shot at them, and then fled. Two of the men in the room were unhurt.
South Africa is included among the top 10 nations worldwide with the highest murder rates, and there has been an alarming surge in mass shootings recently. This year has already seen at least two such incidents reported.
A tragic event occurred in April when 10 family members, including a child, were murdered in a house. Eight individuals were also killed at a birthday celebration in January.
In the previous year, there were three separate bar shootings over a single weekend, leaving 22 people dead in various regions of the country.
While South Africa maintains fairly stringent firearm regulations, it struggles significantly with illegal weaponry, as police and local activists have reported.
In the first quarter of this year, official crime data indicates an average of 30 people were killed each day by guns in South Africa. During the same period, police documented over 4,000 instances of unlawful gun or ammunition possession.
