No fewer than 12 people have been killed after gunmen stormed an informal settlement near Johannesburg, South Africa, and opened fire on residents.
South African police said the attack happened before midnight on Tuesday at the Jumpers informal settlement, an impoverished area made up of metal shacks located near an abandoned gold mine.
The settlement is also close to an area where illegal miners are said to live and work.
Police said about 10 attackers were driven to the settlement and dropped off before they entered the community through two entrances and began shooting at residents in different parts of the area.
“The suspects allegedly entered the informal settlement through both entrances and moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle,” police spokeswoman Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.
Nevhuhulwi said preliminary findings showed that 12 people died in the attack.
According to her, 11 victims were confirmed dead at the scene, while one other person later died in hospital.
“Preliminary investigations reveal that 12 people died as a result of the attack,” she said.
“Eight adult males and three adult females were declared dead at the scene.”
Police did not immediately release the identities of the victims.
A resident, however, told eNCA broadcaster that some people from neighbouring Lesotho lived in the settlement.
The attack occurred about six kilometres east of Johannesburg city centre, close to an abandoned gold mine.
Police said the motive for the shooting had not been established and no arrests had been made.
However, provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni, said investigators were looking into possible links with illegal mining activities in the area.
“At this stage, we could not determine what is the motive,” Mthombeni told reporters at the scene.
“As you know, this area is adjacent to the illegal mining area. We are having those suspicions,” he added.
The police chief condemned the attack, describing it as cruel and shocking.
“One can term this incident to be insane, to be heartless and to an extent, it is barbaric,” he said.
Mthombeni also disclosed that police had carried out an operation in the area three weeks earlier, during which firearms and ammunition for AK-47 rifles were recovered.
He said three people were arrested during the earlier operation.
Authorities investigating the mass shooting were seen removing equipment believed to be connected to illegal mining activities.
Illegal mining has become a major security concern in South Africa, drawing people from different parts of southern Africa.
The illegal miners, popularly known as zama zamas — a Zulu expression meaning “those who try” — often enter abandoned mine shafts in search of gold.
Many of the miners are driven by poverty and unemployment, but authorities have linked the trade to organised crime, extortion, assassinations and violent clashes between rival groups.
Johannesburg and surrounding settlements along the gold reef have seen a rise in the activities of illegal miners, with many abandoned shafts still believed to contain gold.
