Police are searching for at least 15 heavily armed gunmen who killed six people, including a toddler, and critically injured four others when they opened fire on a shack and shop in Benoni on the East Rand.
The killers, armed with assault rifles and handguns, surrounded a shack and spaza shop in Chief Albert Luthuli informal settlement in Crystal Park on Saturday night.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Katlego Mogale said during the shooting shots were also fired into a shack, killing three men, two women and a two-year-old girl.
The shooting is believed to be part of a deadly illegal mining war gripping the East Rand.
On February 5, emergency services recovered the bodies of five illegal miners who died violently from an abandoned mine shaft in Benoni.
Five days later two rival mining gangs clashed in a nine-hour gun battle, using improvised bombs and machine guns at New Modder, outside Benoni.
There have also been violent clashes on the West Rand.
Police and miners say that the violence is being caused by two rival Basuto factions.
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