The incident took place shortly after midnight when a group of men armed with rifles and 9mm pistols entered the bar in the Nomzamo informal settlement near Johannesburg and began shooting “randomly” at patrons, Gauteng police said in a statement .
Police said 23 people were shot at the restaurant – 12 died at the scene and 11 were rushed to a nearby hospital with injuries. Two more people were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police have launched an investigation into 14 cases of murder and 9 cases of attempted murder, the statement said.
“It’s a bad scene. When you see the bodies [that] are accumulated, you can see that every one of these people [was] struggling to get out of the tavern,” Gauteng Police Commissioner Elias Mauela told South African news channel ENCA.
Mauela said police were yet to determine the details of the motive or why the people in the tavern were targeted.
“I have no doubt that with the cooperation of the community here we will be able to solve this case,” Mauela added.
Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward, saying the suspects are still on the run.
The Soweto massacre comes as the country is still mourning the deaths of 22 young people – some as young as 13 – who died in still unclear circumstances in an east London tavern last month.
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