JOHANNESBURG

Ten members of the same family were shot dead by gunmen in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, police said Friday.

Lirandzu Themba, the Police Ministry spokesperson, said the incident happened in the city of Pietermaritzburg in the early hours of Friday morning.

“Unknown gunmen stormed a Pietermaritzburg homestead and ambushed the family, seven women and three men were fatally wounded during the shooting,” Themba said in a statement.

Addressing reporters at the scene, Police Minister Bheki Cele said two suspects allegedly involved in the shooting have been arrested and one suspect was shot dead during a shootout with police.

Cele said three firearms were recovered and police are searching for a fourth suspect who escaped.

The youngest victim in the mass shooting was 13 years old and the eldest 63, according to Cele. He said there is a high crime in the KwaZulu-Natal province where several incidents of shootings were reported this week.

Police said it is still investigating the motive of Friday’s shooting.

Mass shootings have become more frequent in South Africa, where 70 people were murdered on average every day from April to June 2022, according to national crime statistics.

In July, 14 people were killed at a bar in the township of Soweto near Johannesburg. Police said the attackers used high-caliber firearms and sprayed bullets randomly.