Three teenage boys have been killed and three houses burnt in violence between residents and gang members in Daveyton, on the East Rand, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Tuesday.
Members of a gang called OVL killed a teenage boy in Etwatwa on Sunday by forcing a tyre over his body, dousing it with petrol and setting it alight, Ekurhuleni metro police department spokesperson Clifford Shongwe said.
Four OVL members were arrested on Monday. On Tuesday, another two teenagers, both OVL members, were killed in the same fashion as the first boy, a practice known as necklacing. They were believed to be aged between 14 and 18.
Three houses were burnt down. At least one of them was suspected to belong to an OVL gang member.
Shongwe said the gang had been terrorising residents and residents were retaliating.
“The whole area is chaotic,” he said. Police had to use Nyalas to patrol the streets after residents began throwing stones at passing cars. A police spokesperson was hospitalised when he was injured while taking photographs.
On Tuesday afternoon, residents went to schools in the area looking for gang members. They had armed themselves with pangas, axes, pitchforks, and bricks. Etwatwa East and Emaphupheni were particularly badly affected.
Police would stay in the area overnight, Shongwe said.
Source: News24
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