Gunmen opened hearth on a gaggle of individuals celebrating a birthday on the weekend in a township in South Africa, killing eight and wounding three others, police mentioned Monday.

The birthday celebrant was amongst these gunned down within the mass capturing within the southern port metropolis of Gqeberha, previously Port Elizabeth.

“The owner of the house was celebrating his birthday when two unknown gunmen entered the yard” on Sunday night “and started shooting at the guests,” police mentioned in a press release.

The gunmen “randomly shot at guests,” police mentioned, including “eight people died while three others are still fighting for their lives in hospital. The home owner is among the deceased”.

The motive of the assault is but unknown.

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Nomthetheleli Mene, the provincial police chief for the Eastern Cape province, condemned the killings as “a blatant disregard for human life”.

An investigation has been launched into the assault and police mentioned a manhunt for the perpetrators was underway.

Shootings are frequent in South Africa, which has one of many world’s highest homicide charges, fuelled by gang violence and alcohol.

South Africa final 12 months noticed string of shootings that killed almost two dozen at separate bars in working class suburbs in Johannesburg and within the japanese metropolis of Pietermaritzburg.

Police Minister Bheki Cele, the nationwide police commissioner Fannie Masemola, and crime specialists had been scheduled to go to the scene of the assault later Monday morning.