THREE children are among 11 people killed after gunmen stormed a bar.
Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital after the horror shooting in Pretoria, South Africa.
Police are now hunting for three suspects on the run after the mass shooting.
A three-year-old boy, a girl of 16 and a 12-year-old boy were among those killed.
The shooting happened at an unlicensed bar in the Saulsville township west of Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday.
Local media reported the bar was inside a hostel.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 an average of more than 70 a day.
Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, authorities say.
There have been several mass shootings at bars, sometimes called shebeens or taverns, in South Africa in recent years, including one that killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022.
Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings at two separate houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province in September last year.
A man was charged with 18 counts of murder for allegedly shooting the victims with an AK-style assault rifle.
It comes after three children and a young adult were tragically killed in a mass shooting at a children’s birthday party.
Another 11 were injured after the suspect opened fire at a banquet hall in Stockton, California.
Those killed in the mass shooting were ages eight, nine, 14 and 21, police said.
The injured include a nine-year-old, 12 and 15-year-old young adults under the age of 22, authorities added.
Meanwhile, two people were killed and several others were injured in a shooting incident on the Greek island of Crete.