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Soweto is a suburb of South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg
Photo: Michel Renaudeau / IMAGO
A shootout at a bar in Soweto has killed 14 people.
The act of violence in the Johannesburg suburb happened on Sunday night, said Elias Mawela from the South African police.
The officers found twelve bodies at the crime scene, and two other people later succumbed to their injuries.
Murders and other violent crimes have increased sharply in South Africa this year, South Africa's Police Minister Bheki Cele said in early June.
According to police statistics, 6,083 people were killed between January and March – a good 22 percent more than in the same period last year.
The number of violent crimes had already risen sharply in the course of 2021.
According to statistics from November, there were more than 6,100 murders and homicides between July and September.
That was an increase of 21 percent compared to the same period last year, it said.
But not only the number of murders and manslaughters: South Africa also recorded an increase in rapes.
From July to September, 9,556 rapes were also reported, an increase of seven percent.
It was not specified how high the estimated number of unreported crimes was.
"The latest crime data shows once again that South Africa is a violent country," Police Minister Bheki Cele told South African media.
The level of sexual violence is "disgraceful and deeply disturbing".
muk/AFP
