MALMESBURY: A Somali man stabbed two worshippers to death and wounded two others in a rampage at a mosque in South Africa on Thursday before being shot dead by police, officers said.
Police quickly surrounded the building in Malmesbury near Cape Town outside which a body lay under a tree and a penknife was discarded nearby, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene. The motive of the attacker, who police said was Somali, remains unclear.
It comes just a month after a deadly stabbing at another South African mosque which police said had “elements of extremism” and left an Islamic leader dead.
Police were alerted by early morning worshippers and arrived at Malmesbury’s mosque to find two people had died of stab wounds, Western Cape police spokeswoman Noloyiso Rwexana, told AFP.
“The suspect, believed to be in his thirties and armed with a knife, charged at the police who tried to persuade him to hand himself over,” she said.
The man, who was seen at the Mosque for the first time on Wednesday according to police, “ignored the calls and tried to attack police. He was shot dead”.
Forensics officers are now conducting a finger-tip search of the area and the elite Hawks investigative unit has been drafted in to lead the inquiry.
Zainab Bassa, the wife of 72-year-old Ismail Bassa who was killed in the attack, told AFP that her husband of more than 30 years was “slaughtered” as he prayed.
“My husband talked to everybody, he loved kids, it’s a great loss for me, as well as for the community, to pass away in a masjid, murdered, slaughtered,” said Bassa, 59.
“That was his second house — you would always find him in the mosque. He left last night and said ‘I’m going now, I’ll buy you another Eid dress’.”
The other victim was a member of South Africa’s Somali community, according to police.
Two other people were wounded and are being treated in hospital.
The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), which represents the Muslim community in South Africa, said it was “shocked to the core” over the incident, which came at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The MJC appealed to the community not to speculate about the attacker’s motives and said its top leadership would travel to the area to assist the community.
It comes a month after an attack at a mosque in the town of Verulam, on the outskirts of the eastern port city of Durban.
Three unidentified assailants killed a mosque leader on May 10 by slitting his throat and injured two others after midday prayers.
The assailants in that attack, who also set off a petrol bomb inside the mosque, escaped in a car and remain at large.
