A horrific crime. 10 members of one family killed in South Africa

Police said Friday that ten members of the same family, seven of them women, were killed in a mass shooting at a South African home.

Unidentified gunmen ambushed them at a house in the city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, according to initial reports, police said.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, and there has been a series of mass shootings in recent years.

Eight people were shot dead at a birthday party in the southern port city of Jekeberha in January. Last year, 16 people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in the Johannesburg town of Soweto when a group of armed men, some with rifles, opened fire on bar patrons.