Johannesburg, Aug 12 (EFE).- A group of armed men shot dead at least six people in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, the police reported on Saturday.
The shooting occurred on Friday night in the Umlazi township, south of Durban, according to a police statement.
Police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda said at least four suspects broke into a house just before midnight.
The assailants killed two people inside the house, another in a backroom, and a fourth person outside.
The attackers later went to a nearby informal settlement and shot at three people, Netshiunda said.
Two died at the scene, while the third succumbed to gunshot wounds at a hospital.
Netshiunda noted that preliminary investigations revealed that one of the suspects asked for identification from the victims before shooting them.
The spokesperson explained that police believed he was wanted for another murder, during which he accidentally dropped his identity documents.
He suggested the shooter might have believed one of his victims had picked up the identity document.
Three suspects have been identified, and an operation launched to apprehend them.
Similar crime incidents have occurred in KwaZulu-Natal in recent months.
Armed men murdered ten members of the same family in April in Pietermaritzburg, the provincial capital.
In June, seven people died in a shooting at a shelter in Umlazi.
South Africa is grappling with daily crime.
According to police statistics, nearly 6,300 murders and over 10,500 rapes were reported in a three-month period between January and March of this year. EFE
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