A former South African policeman, who was fired for fraud and served a six-month jail sentence, has shot dead four people and wounded eight others in a killing spree in a small town, police say.
The 27-year-old man seized three firearms at knifepoint from a police station in the town of Postmasburg some 340 miles southwest of Johannesburg yesterday night, police spokeswoman Ms Chantel Manuel said.
"He went into the streets where he allegedly shot four people, of whom two died on the scene, another died in the hospital in Postmasburg and another one died on the way to the hospital," she said today.
Seven people were seriously wounded in the shooting spree and taken to a hospital in the neighbouring city of Kimberley, while another person was being treated in the Postmasburg hospital.
"He was arrested last night and we are investigating four cases of murder and eight cases of attempted murder," Ms Manuel said, adding that the motive for the killings was unknown.
She said the policeman had been dismissed in February 2000 after being found guilty of fraud and defeating the ends of justice. He was released from prison sometime in 2001.
A serving South African policeman was arrested last week for the execution-style murders of five petrol station attendants who were shot in the back of their heads.
International monitors rate South Africa as one of the most violent places outside a war zone, with 20,000 people murdered every year and a bank held up every seven hours.