Seven men were killed execution-style at a gay massage parlour today and three others were in critical condition in hospital, South African police said.
Most of the victims were found tied up, their throats slit and gunshot wounds to the head in the Cape Town suburb of Sea Point, said police spokesman Etienne Terblanche.
Police would not speculate on the motive for the attack. "The six people who were killed were all shot in the head...execution-style," Terblanche told SABC radio. The seventh victim died several hours later in hospital.
The attack on the private home, which was known to police as a gay massage parlour, occurred at around at 2.30 a.m.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world with around 20,000 murders and 50,000 rapes in the country every year.