JOHANNESBURG – A mass shooting at a pub in the Johannesburg town of Soweto has left 14 people dead and three others in critical condition, police said.
Police said they were investigating reports that a group of men arrived in a minibus taxi and opened fire on several patrons at the bar on Saturday night. Police were on Sunday morning to remove the bodies of the deceased and investigate the cause of the mass shooting.
Three people were seriously injured and another was taken to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Gauteng provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, said the number of shell casings found at the scene indicated it was a group of people who shot at patrons.
Mawela told the Associated Press: “Initial investigation shows that these people are enjoying life here, in a licensed pub that operates during the appropriate hours.
“Suddenly they heard some gunshots, that’s when people were trying to run out of the pub. At the moment, we don’t have full details on what the motives were and why they were targeting them. these people,” he said.
“You can see that a large gun was used and it’s firing randomly. You can see that every single one of those people is struggling to get out of the pub,” Mawela told The Associated Press. .
The Soweto bar shooting comes two weeks after 21 teenagers were found dead in an East London pub. Authorities have yet to release the cause of those deaths, but the teens were not shot or crushed in a stampede, according to officials.
