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Six People Killed in Overnight Attack on South African Police Station

by VOA News

   Five South African police officers and an off-duty soldier were killed
   Wednesday during an attack on a rural police station.

   A police spokesman says an armed gang stormed the outpost in the
   southern village of Engcobo shortly after midnight local time and
   killed three of the officers. They stole a cache of weapons and
   abducted two other police officers as they escaped in a police van. The
   soldier was shot and killed as the gang fled.

   The bodies of the two abducted officers were later discovered dumped on
   the side of a road.

   Police Minister Fikile Mbalula called the attack "a national tragedy."

   South Africa has one of the highest crimes rates in the world.