Seventeen people were killed in two homes in a South African village

Police in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa said on Saturday that they had begun a manhunt for the suspects after mass shootings at two houses in a community claimed the lives of seventeen people.

With over 60 million people living there, South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with over 20,000 murders reported annually.

In a statement, the police said that 15 women and 2 men had been slain in total during the shootings, which took place in two different residences in the town of Lusikisiki.

Thirteen people—twelve women and one man—were slain in one house. Four more people were slain in another farmhouse, according to the South African Police Service.

Although the reason behind the assaults remained unknown, authorities declared they had started a manhunt for the gunmen.