At least 12 people have been killed and nine more seriously wounded in an indiscriminate mass shooting by gunmen at an informal settlement in Johannesburg, South Africa. The attack took place late on Tuesday (10 June) night at the Jumpers informal settlement in the Cleveland suburb. Police have since launched extensive searches and a major operation to catch the killers, but no one involved has yet been arrested.
Police said that at about 11:10pm local time on Tuesday, at least ten armed criminals carrying heavy rifles arrived in a white Toyota Quantum and got out in front of a petrol station in Cleveland. They then entered the settlement from two directions and began firing indiscriminately on people at various points, before fleeing the scene quickly in the same vehicle. Eight men and three women died at the scene, and one more person later died in hospital; nine others with gunshot wounds were admitted to various hospitals. Police described the attack as “heartless” and “barbaric.”
The specific motive has not been confirmed, but local residents believe the killings may stem from factional feuding or turf rivalry among illegal mine workers living in the area. Johannesburg provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni, visiting the scene, told journalists an investigation into the true cause was under way — and that, with the settlement lying beside an illegal mining zone, investigators are not ruling out a link to illegal mining. Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the army to shut down illegal mining operations in some areas. In South Africa — among the countries with the highest murder rates in the world — the spread of millions of illegal firearms alongside legal weapons is fuelling such violence.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report