Armed with rifles and handguns, gunmen opened fire on people sitting in the Orlando East Tavern early Sunday morning. Three people were seriously injured and are being treated in hospital along with another victim with less serious injuries. Police said the group entered the bar before “randomly shooting patrons.” The unidentified gunmen fled and are now on the run, police said, adding that it was unclear how many were involved in the attack. The number of bullets found at the scene indicated it was a group of people who fired at those inside the tavern, said Gauteng provincial police commissioner Lt. Gen. Elias Mauela. He added: “You can see that a high caliber weapon was used and it was firing randomly. You can see all these people were struggling to get out of the tavern.’ South Africa is one of the most violent countries in the world with 20,000 people murdered every year, one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world. Image: Photo: AP Soweto, near Johannesburg, is the largest of the country’s black townships. They were the creations of white minority rule, which ended in 1994, but the legacy of widespread poverty and youth unemployment remains nearly three decades later. Local media reported that another shooting at a tavern in Pietermaritzburg, about 500 kilometers southeast of Soweto, killed four people overnight. Image: Photo: AP A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation. The Soweto bar shooting comes two weeks after 21 teenagers were found dead in a tavern in the East London town. The cause of those deaths has not yet been released by authorities, but the teenagers were not shot or crushed in a riot, officials said.
