At least 21 dead after 3 shootings in a tavern in South Africa

The shooting further underscored safety concerns, coming just two weeks after 21 teenagers were mysteriously killed at a coastal town tavern.

JOHANNESBURG - At least 21 people were killed over the weekend when gunmen opened fire on three taverns in South Africa, in what police described as "random" shooting.

Early Sunday morning in Soweto, Johannesburg, a group of men armed with rifles and automatic handguns stormed a bustling tavern in the Nomzamo slum in the Orlando East neighborhood, police spokesman Col. Dimakatso Sello said. .

The men opened fire about half an hour after midnight in what appeared to be a random shootout, Colonel Sello said, killing 12 people at the scene and injuring 23. Three more people later died in a hospital, police said. They said those killed were between 19 and 35 years old.

The gunmen fled the scene and no arrests were made, police said. Later Sunday morning, people gathered outside the tavern as police removed bodies from the building.

Just hours before the Soweto attack, men guns in Pietermaritzburg, a town about 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg in KwaZulu-Natal province, killed at least four people and injured at least eight in a shooting at a tavern in Sweetwaters, an area on the outskirts of town, police said.

There was no evidence the two attacks were linked, the Lt. Col. said. Nqobile Gwala, police spokesperson.

Around 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, police say two men entered the Sweetwaters Tavern and began shooting at random before fleeing.

Two people died at the Tavern and two others at a nearby hospital, police said, adding those killed were between 30 and 45 years old. Eight other people were also taken to hospital. weekend, gunmen killed two people and injured four on Friday night in Katlehong township, more than 25 miles east of Soweto. Police said four men entered the facility, including at least one armed with a pistol, and began shooting at random. Police did not say if the two attacks in the Johannesburg area were related, but said they had launched a manhunt for the gunmen.

The three separate attacks, hundreds of miles apart, highlighted the high rate of crime and gun violence in South Africa. According to police statistics, the country recorded 5,760 murders last year, or 9.5 murders per 100,000 people, a 66 percent increase from the previous year. The police station serving the community of Sweetwaters has the second highest number of reported murders in the country, according to official statistics.

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa Sud condemned the killings, describing them as "unacceptable and disturbing".

Just two weeks ago, 21 teenagers mysteriously died at a night out on the town coast of East London, about 360 miles southwest of Pietermaritzburg. The cause of their death is still unknown, but authorities have ruled out a stampede. The episode sparked a national conversation about the need for tighter regulation of taverns in South African townships.

These drinking establishments, often located in residential areas, are the legacy of shebeens from the apartheid era, when black South Africans were not allowed to enter segregated bars. These shebeens became sites of violence and risky behavior, with little oversight, a culture that endures to this day, according to a