Unidentified gunmen carried out an execution-style killing, shooting dead seven members of a family, including three children, at their home in rural South Africa, police said Thursday.
A five-year-old boy was killed in a shooting at a home in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal late on Wednesday, police said, and the oldest victim was a woman around 55 years old.
The motive for the attack, which took place in the High Flats area, about 50 miles northwest of the coastal city of Durban, is still unknown.
“Police are convinced this was an execution. It was a planned murder,” provincial police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi told reporters outside the home.
Some of the victims were believed to have been shot in the head while they were lying on the floor. “Approximately 25 bullets were used in total,” he said.
Authorities said the gunmen broke into the home while the family was watching television. Police said the gunmen had a family member outside knock on the door, then opened fire once the door was opened.
“Police will not rest until the perpetrators of this mass shooting are arrested,” Mkhwanazi said, urging anyone with information to contact police.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest peacetime murder rates per capita: about 6,200 people were killed in the country between April and June, according to police statistics released in August.
According to Gun Free South Africa, a non-profit organisation that advocates for the reduction of gun violence, 34 people are killed by guns every day in South Africa.
In April, Soccer star Luke Fleur Six suspects shot dead while filling up car at petrol station in South Africa Arrested.
last year, 10 people from the same family More than 200 young people, including a 13-year-old, were killed in a mass shooting at a home in South Africa.
