Gunmen went on a pre-dawn shooting spree at a property in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province. A motive for the killings was not immediately clear.

Ten members of the same family were killed in a mass shooting at a house in South Africa, police said Friday.

Seven women and three men were fatally wounded in the incident at around 4 a.m. local time (0300 GMT), in Imbali, a township south of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

"According to initial police reports, unknown gunmen stormed a Pietermaritzburg homestead and ambushed the family," police spokeswoman Lirandzu Themba said in a statement.

The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.

Murder rate 'totally unacceptable'

Provincial spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker told the Newsroom Africa TV channel that a number of cases where people are killed indiscriminately need to be urgently addressed.

"And it's not just a policing matter, it's something much bigger than that, where people are just killed, even children (are killed) randomly, which is totally unacceptable," he added.

Police Minister Bheki Cele and senior officials from the South African Police Service were due to visit the crime scene later Friday.

Mass shootings are relatively common in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest murder rates.

Around 20,000 murders are recorded every year out of a population of 60 million.

The country also sees large cases of gender-based violence, robberies and violent conflict.

In January, eight people were fatally shot at a birthday party in the south coast city of Gqeberha.

Last year, 16 died in a mass shooting at a bar in the Johannesburg township of Soweto when a group of armed men, some of them wielding rifles, opened fire on customers.

mm/nm (AFP, AP, Reuters)