The death toll from mass shootings at two houses on the same street over the weekend has risen to 18, authorities reported on Monday. One more person has succumbed to their injuries.

Police are still searching for the attackers who opened fire on Saturday on people gathered for a family event in Lusikisiki village, Eastern Cape province.

The shootings, which occurred at two separate houses on the same street, have intensified public anger over a recent wave of mass shootings in the country.

The motive for the killings remains unclear, and police stated on Monday that the investigation is ongoing, with no arrests made.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the killings and promised that the government would dedicate all necessary resources to the investigation.

He said on Monday that 38 people had been killed in previous mass shootings over the past two years, and 25 suspects have been apprehended.

“I feel deeply for all the families and members of the broader community affected by this attack, and on behalf of all of us as South Africans, I offer you our deepest sympathies,” he said.

“While we are united in our grief, we are also united in our outrage and condemnation of this excessive criminal assault which will not go unpunished,” he said.

The shootings follow a mass killing in KwaZulu-Natal province in April 2023. Ten members of the same family, including seven women and a 13-year-old boy, were killed at their home.

Sixteen people were fatally shot in a bar in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022, the worst mass shooting in South Africa in decades before the latest killings in Lusikisiki.

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. It recorded 12,734 homicides in the first six months of this year, according to police.