Gunmen kill 19 people in 'random' shootings in South Africa

Gunmen killed 19 people in two apparently random shootings within hours of each other at taverns in South Africa, police said on Sunday, reinforcing the country's bleak status as a global center for murder.

Attackers armed with rifles and pistols opened fire in the Orlando East coffee shop in the township of Soweto in the early hours of Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding nine, police said.

"You can see by the way the bullet cartridges are cast around that they were just shooting randomly," said Elias Mawela, police commissioner for Gauteng Province.

Sololo Mjoli's two sons, Sthembiso, 34, Luyanda, 18, were both killed in the attack at the coffee shop in one of Soweto's poorer neighborhoods, made up mostly of metal sheet shacks.

"I'm so heartbroken," said the 59-year-old gardener, adding that Sthemibiso's friend had arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting to find him still breathing.

"Then he was rushed to hospital, where he died."

Coffee shop waiter Thobani Mhlabiso said he hid behind the fridge to survive the onslaught.

"There was blood everywhere," he said.

Police confirmed a second apparently random shooting hours earlier, at around 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, in a tavern in Pietermaritzburg, 500 km southeast of Soweto, which saw four people killed and eight wounded.

Officers said they did not believe the two shootings were linked. The killers from both incidents are on the run, according to police, who said it was not clear how many attackers were involved in either shooting.

South Africa, home to about 60 million people, is one of the world's most violent countries with 20,000 people murdered every year, one of the highest per-capita murder rates globally.

ME