JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Gunmen stormed an informal settlement near Johannesburg and shot dead 12 people overnight, South African police said Wednesday, in the latest mass shooting in the crime-weary country.

The shootings happened before midnight on Tuesday in an impoverished area of metal shacks near where illegal miners were living, police said.

Around 10 attackers were driven to the Jumpers settlement and dropped off before storming the area, a police spokeswoman said.

“The suspects allegedly entered the informal settlement through both entrances and moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle,” she said.

“Preliminary investigations reveal that 12 people died as a result of the attack,” Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.

“Eight adult males and three adult females were declared dead at the scene,” she said. One person died in hospital.

The attack was in an area about six kilometers (less than four miles) east of the Johannesburg city center and near an abandoned gold mine.

South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings........

© The Times of Israel