Police were trying to verify whether the attacks were linked, they said, noting their similarity. In the town of Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province on Saturday night, two entered the bar and “randomly shot patrons” before fleeing, local police spokesman Nqobile Gwala said. “A total of 12 people were shot. Two people were pronounced dead at the scene and the other two died at the hospital,” he said. “Another eight people are still in hospital after being injured.” The dead were between 30 and 45 years old. The attack happened at about 8:30 p.m. at a tavern in a semi-rural area 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Pietermaritzburg in the country’s east, near a car wash and a liquor store, according to an AFP reporter at the scene. The mayor, Mzimkhulu Thebola, said the attack ended very quickly without any robbery, conversation or fighting. “Every week we get news of people who have been randomly shot,” he said. Bloodstains were seen on the ground in front of the bar. In Soweto a few hours later, gunmen killed 15 people and wounded eight in a shooting at a tavern in a township near Johannesburg. A police investigator and forensics staff at the scene of the mass attack at a Soweto bar in the early hours of Sunday. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee/AFP/Getty Images The police officers the victims were shot at random, according to witnesses, while they were drinking. “When we arrived at the scene, 12 people had died of gunshot wounds,” said police officer Nonhlanhla Kubheka. Eleven people were taken to hospital and three later succumbed to their injuries. The dead were aged between 19 and 35, including two women, provincial police chief Elias Mauela said. There are no details about the attackers, he said, and forensic police are still gathering evidence. The two deadly attacks came two weeks after 22 people, mostly teenagers, were mysteriously killed in yet-to-be-explained circumstances at a council pub in the south east London town last month.
