At least 18 people were killed in South Africa as gunmen opened fire at two bars and shot people randomly. Several people have been injured in the two shooting which happened in Johannesburg on Sunday.
As many as 14 people were killed in the first shooting at a tavern in Johannesburg's Soweto township. Police stated that the shooting took place at 12:30 am when a group of men, who came in a minibus taxi, opened fire on some of the patrons.
Gunmen Came In And Shot Randomly
"I can confirm that incident did happen and it happened around 12:30 am this morning. Primary investigations suggest the people were enjoying themselves in the tavern. They just came in and shot at them randomly," said Gauteng Police Commissioner Elias Mawela.
The Commissioner also revealed that people inside the bar all of the sudden heard gunshots and tried to run out of the bar. "All of a sudden they heard some gunshots, that is when people tried to run out of the tavern. We don't have the full details at the moment of what is the motive, and why they were targeting these people," he said.
High-Caliber Firearm Was Used
Mawela told The Associated Press that a high-caliber firearm was used in the shooting. "You can see that a high caliber firearm was used and it was shooting randomly. You can see that every one of those people were struggling to get out of the tavern," said Mawela.
A few hours later another shooting took place in a bar in Pietermaritzburg, where four people were killed and eight others were injured. So far, it's not known whether or not the two shootings were linked.
"So 14 people shot dead in Soweto, 4 shot dead in Pietermaritzburg, yet the minister of police is hell-bent on disarming law-abiding armed citizens," tweeted security expert Ian Cameron, who founded Firearms South Africa.
The shootings in the Soweto bar comes two weeks after 21 teenagers were found dead in a tavern in the city of East London. The cause of those deaths has not yet been announced by authorities, but the teens were not shot nor crushed in a stampede, according to Associated Press.
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