In total, 15 women and two men were killed in the shootings, sending one additional person to hospital in critical condition. Photo courtesy of the South African Police Service/EPA-EFE

“This morning we learned that 17 family members were shot dead in the village of Ngobozana in Lusikisiki. This callous attack took place in the early morning hours at two farms on the same street,” says the SA Police. Service sent to X.

“(A) manhunt has been launched to apprehend those behind these heinous killings.”

Thirteen people died in one house and the bodies of four others were found in the second of two properties just over half a mile apart, the national police said in Program X.

In total, 15 women and two men were killed in the shootings, sending one additional person to hospital in critical condition.

Four adult women, one man and a 2-month-old child survived, according to the police.

Authorities did not provide detailed information about a possible motive for the crime.

“A very sad incident took place there overnight, during which unknown people shot 17 people in two separate houses,” South African Police Minister Senzo Mchunu told reporters at a press conference updating the situation.

Mchunu did not detail the search for the suspect or suspects.

“(South African National Police Service) Commissioner (Sehlahle Fannie) Masemola took action and did so quite quickly, deploying teams of criminalists and other specialist investigators who began working there. “We hope that we will find some clues about who committed these heinous crimes and we will spare no time to bring them to justice,” the minister told reporters.

“We want to send a very strong message to communities that the police are not izangoma ababhuli (traditional doctors). They (the police) need reports from active community members. We need this on a toll-free number. We gave them (the member community) our office numbers. We told them they had to contact the police. If they don’t trust them, they can use a toll-free number.

Statistics provided by South African police show that over 6,000 murders took place in the country between April and June.