Two children were hit by a stray bullet in Cape Town, South Africa as illegal residents clashed with policemen.
The incident which happened on Monday, August 24, according to reports by AFP, led to one child’s death while another one was injured as illegal residents fired at police seeking to prevent them from moving into government housing units.
Recently, South African Police have been dismantling several unlawful property grabs by illegal residents.
The “land invasions” as it is called in South Africa is fuelled by rampant financial inequality and a lack of low-cost housing in urban areas.
But illegal owners of properties in South Africa have been violent recently as they set vehicles on fire and destroy community facilities while clashing with law enforcement officials.
On Monday, the clashes escalated as shots fired at police killed an eight-year-old boy and wounded a 12-year-old girl, Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato said in a statement.
“Over the last month we have seen violent and coordinated land invasions in over 30 different parts of the metro,” Plato said, adding that almost 50 officers had been injured in clashes.
Cape Town security official Richard Bosman said the shots had come “from a crowd of people”, after which a gunman was identified but fled the scene.
“The officers did not return fire… but sought cover instead,” he added.
