Agencies: Police said gunmen opened fire on people sitting in a bar in the town of Soweto, South Africa, in the early hours of Sunday, killing 15 and injuring nine others.

The police added that the attack occurred shortly after midnight when men entered the Orlando East bar in the town on the outskirts of Johannesburg "and fired randomly at the customers".

The police confirmed a second attack where shooting also apparently occurred randomly at around half past eight on Saturday evening in a bar in Pietermaritzburg, about 500 kilometers from Soweto, killing four and injuring eight.

Nkopili Jwala, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal police region that includes Pietermaritzburg, said via phone, "We do not believe the two incidents are linked because they occurred in different provinces. We are investigating this incident independently."

In both cases, the police said the perpetrators fled the scene and are still at large.

South Africa is one of the most violent countries where about 20,000 people are killed annually in violence, one of the highest rates relative to the population.

At the scene of the attack in Soweto, people gathered around the police cordon where a heavy security presence maintained order, according to a Reuters correspondent.

Elias Mawila, commissioner of the Gauteng police, the most populous province in South Africa, said in a phone call to Reuters that a third shooting occurred during what is suspected to be a robbery at a bar in Katlehong, also on the outskirts of Johannesburg, on Thursday evening, killing two and injuring two others.

Mawila, referring to the Soweto attack, said, "Why were they targeted? No one was specifically targeted. We can tell from the splattered bullet casings at the scene that they fired randomly."

Soweto, located near Johannesburg, is the largest black township where poverty and unemployment remain widespread despite the end of white minority rule in 1994.