/ 19 January 1999

SEVEN KILLED IN EVATON

SEVEN men were killed and one was seriously wounded when an armed gang stormed into a private home in the Vaal Triangle township of Evaton, south of Johannesburg, police said on Tuesday. Police arrested four men and confiscated three pistols soon after the massacre at midnight on Monday. “The four entered the house and apparently had an argument with the occupants and started firing at them,” police spokesman Sipho Ngubane said. The seven dead men had been visiting the wounded man, he said, adding that the motive for the attack is unclear. It appears that a pistol was stolen from one of the dead men. Last week three people were shot and hacked to death in Evaton by a mob which had accused them of a committing a crime, Ngubane added. At this stage it is speculated the latest attack may be vigilante related.