In the early hours of Sunday, armed men in the South African township of Soweto opened fire on customers of a tavern, killing 15 and injuring 9, according to authorities.

Police said the males entered the Orlando East bar just after midnight and then “shot indiscriminately at the patrons,” which is when the massacre occurred. The number of the assailants is unclear as they fled the scene and are currently on the run, according to the police.

South Africa is one of the world’s most violent countries with 20,000 people murdered every year, one of the highest per-capita murder rates globally.

Soweto, near Johannesburg, is the largest of the country’s Black townships. They were the creations of white minority rule, which ended in 1994 but whose legacy of widespread poverty and youth unemployment persist nearly three decades later.

Local media reported that another shooting in a tavern in Pietermaritzburg, about 500 km southeast of Soweto, had killed four people overnight. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.