JOHANNESBURG: Gunmen stormed an informal settlement near Johannesburg and shot dead 12 people overnight, South African police said Wednesday, in the latest mass shooting in the crime-weary country.

The shootings happened before midnight on Tuesday in an impoverished area of metal shacks near where illegal miners were living, police said.

Around 10 attackers were driven to the Jumpers settlement and dropped off before storming the area, a police spokeswoman said.

"The suspects allegedly entered the informal settlement through both entrances and moved through the area, opening fire on residents and community members at multiple locations before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle," she said.

"Preliminary investigations reveal that 12 people died as a result of the attack," Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.

"Eight adult males and three adult females were declared dead at the scene," she said. One person died in the hospital.

Illegal mining

The attack occurred in an area about six kilometers (less than four miles) east of the Johannesburg city center, near an abandoned gold mine.

South Africa is awash with legal and illegal firearms, and shootings are common, often fuelled by gang rivalry and competition between informal businesses.

Police said the motive for the attack was not yet known, and no arrests had been made, but there were suspicions it was related to competition over illegal mining in the area.

"At this stage, we could not determine what is the motive," provincial commissioner Lieutenant General Tommy Mthombeni told reporters at the scene.

"As you know, this area is adjacent to the legal mining area. We are having those suspicions."

"One can term this incident to be insane, to be heartless and to an extent, it is barbaric," he said.

Illegal mining in South Africa draws people from across southern Africa and has been linked to organized crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities.

Clandestine artisanal miners have become an entrenched presence in the shantytowns that ring Johannesburg and its satellite settlements along the gold reef.

Driven by poverty and unemployment, the zama zamas, which means "those who try" in the Zulu language, descend deep into still gold-bearing shafts abandoned by mining companies.

In a mass shooting linked to rivalry between illegal mining gangs, nine people were killed in December when gunmen opened fire at a bar in the impoverished Bekkersdal township southwest of Johannesburg and in another gold-mining area.

In March, soldiers moved into violence hotspots in Johannesburg to support police efforts to tackle rampant crime, described by President Cyril Ramaphosa as one of the biggest threats facing the country.

Gunmen

Gunmen shoot dead 12 near Johannesburg: South African police