Eight people have been arrested in connection with the death of several people on trains in Gauteng recently, the police and Metrorail said on Thursday.
The group was arrested on the West Rand and in Pretoria and would face charges of attempted murder, Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said in a statement.
”Several other suspects have been identified and more arrests are imminent,” she said.
Several people have died and others have been injured, some of them critically, when they were thrown out of moving trains in Gauteng.
Martins-Engelbrecht said police would further investigate whether the deaths were linked to the security guards strike or whether ”criminal elements” took advantage of the strike.
She said the number of those injured and killed during the train violence would be known at a later stage.
”This is a shocking state of affairs and the police are working tirelessly with all role players in order to facilitate the safety of commuters.
”Several interventions are in place on trains and railway stations,” Martins-Engelbrecht said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people were arrested when police searched trains to and from Pretoria, the North Rand and Soweto.
They were arrested for not travelling without valid tickets.
”It is possible that these individuals were on the trains for the purposes of committing crimes,” she said. — Sapa