(BBC) At least 15 people have been shot dead in a bar in the South African township of Soweto.
Police say gunmen entered the Orlando East tavern in the early hours of today and started firing randomly at a group of young people.
They then fled the scene in a white minibus. No motive for the attack has been established, police said.
Several more people are in a critical condition in hospital, the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko reports.
The victims are believed to be between 19 and 35 years old.
Gauteng province’s head of police, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, told the BBC the shooting appears to have been “a cold-blooded attack on innocent tavern patrons.”
Police said four other people were killed today in a separate tavern shooting in the south-eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Shootings are not uncommon in South Africa. They are often linked to gangs or alcohol.
But this is an exceptionally high death toll and comes soon after the death of 21 teenagers to have been either gassed or poisoned at another bar in the city of East London.