South Africa: 15 die in tavern shooting; 2nd incident 2 days

Johannesburg: In the second shooting incident in two days, at least 15 people were dead, and nine injured at a tavern in Soweto township here on Sunday. On Saturday, another similar shooting claimed four lives in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province, PTI reported.

According to provincial Police Commissioner Elias Mawela, the incident occurred at 12:30 in the morning. "We believe that there must have been more than one shooter. At this stage, we don't know what the motive for the shooting was, but I can say that the scene looks like the shooters came here with an intention to kill but randomly so," Mawela informed. "We will be working around the clock to make sure arrests happen immediately," he added.

Another source informed that the assailants arrived in a minibus vehicle and opened fire without warning and with no known motive using high calibre weapons.

Further, "You can't say it was a planned robbery because they did not take anything. They walked in and shot randomly at people who were enjoying themselves in the tavern, which we verified through the Liquor Board, and law enforcement agencies were legally licenced and were operating within its working hours," the source added.

Two weeks ago, 21 young people, some as young as 13, died at a tavern in East London of unknown cause, though poisoning is suspected. The real reason behind the deaths was not being revealed by the administration yet.