Unidentified gunmen, firing at random, killed eight people and wounded four others in a squatter camp in South Africa's Natal province, authorities said Friday.
Police said at least three gunmen entered the Krishna Road squatter camp just outside the coastal city of Durban late Thursday and fired at residents with AK-47 assault rifles."They fired shots at random, killing four black males and three black females and a baby," police spokesman Maj. Bala Naidoo said in a statement. "Four other persons were injured and taken to hospital."
Naidoo said a special team of investigators had been assembled to track down the gunmen.
Much of the violence in Natal has been linked by authorities to political rivalry between the African National Congress and the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party.
The independent Human Rights Commission reports that more than 4,000 people have died in political and ethnic violence throughout South Africa since the start of 1993.