Manhunt underway as 17 people finished in Eastrict Cape village aggression

Seventeen people have been finished in a mass shooting in a far South African town with a manhunt under way to discover the criminals, police say.

Two homesteads on the same street in the town of Lusikisiki, in the Eastrict Cape, were centered, police shelp, with 12 women and one man finished in one location, and three women and one man at a second location.

An 18th victim is in a critical condition in hospital, the South Africa Police Service shelp.

The police minister, Senzo Mchunu, is foreseeed to visit the area where the aggression occurred.

Officials shelp the victims were relatives and neighbours in Nyathi village, Ngobozana in Lusikisiki.

South African media inestablished the victims had been assembleed at the hoparticipates to ready to participate a traditional lamenting ceremony for a mother and daughter who were killinged a year ago.

They had been packing outstandings and currents, including furniture, for the event when the aggression occurred on Friday night, according to the media inestablishs.

“We heard firearmstoastys and doors that were started,” Nomnikelo Ndlovu, one of the dwellnts who was able to hide during the aggression, telderly state expansivecaster SABC.

“We tried to hide and three people were stoasty. We are still traumatised.”

In a statement, the police minister shelp that there had been a total of 19 people sleeping in two homes in the same yard at one of the shooting locations.

Mchunu includeed that there had been six survivors at that homestead – four women, a man, and a two-month-elderly child. A police spokesperson shelp earlier that the child was uninjured, but had been apshown to hospital as a prealert.

There were no survivors at the other homestead.

Mchunu shelp a team of distinguishives and forensic experts, including crime scene deal withrs from Pretoria, had been deployed “to piece all [the] evidence together in a bid to apprehend these brutal criminals”.

Officials have yet to choose the motive behind the aggression or create any arrests.

Regional cabinet member for community protectedty, Xolile Nqatha, telderly SABC that he hoped the criticassociate injured man would create a “speedy” recovery, as “his recovery can help us shed more weightless” on the shooting.

He also adviseed that the assailants may have been understandn to the victims.

South Africa has one of the highest killing rates in the world, according to the postpodemandst figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

There were more than 27,000 killings in 2022 – amounting to 45 people per 100,000, out of a population of almost 60 million. By comparison, the US rate is six per 100,000.

Additional inestablishing by Aleks Phillips