3 Black Gunmen Kill 5 Whites in S. Africa Attack

Five whites were killed when black attackers fired guns and tossed a grenade into a hotel bar Saturday night in the southern coastal town of East London, police said.

Police said six whites and one black worker were injured in the attack at the Highgate Hotel shortly after 10 p.m.

No one claimed responsibility, but the Pan-Africanist Congress has carried out several attacks against whites in the region in recent months.

“There was blood and glass and bodies lying everywhere,” police Lt. Col. Christo Louw said in a telephone interview from the scene. “It’s just bloody chaos.”

Witnesses said three black men in masks entered the hotel and headed for its two bars. They tossed in tear gas and threw a hand grenade into a pool room, then opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, killing five white men, Louw said.

Until late last year, political attacks against white civilians were extremely rare. But at least 11 whites have been killed in a series of attacks, most of them around East London and Johannesburg.

The government and police have blamed the PAC, a small, radical group.

The PAC usually does not claim responsibility for specific attacks. But the group says it is continuing to wage war against the government, though it also is participating in black-white talks to end apartheid.

The most recent round of talks was Friday and the PAC was among 26 groups participating.