A CHURCH hostage drama has left five people dead and 30 arrested in Zuurbekom, Gauteng, in the early hours of Saturday morning.
According to a tweet from the South African police service, the incident took place at the International Pentecost Holiness Church.
Police responded to reports of a hostage situation and shooting at around 03h00.
Police have now freed a group of people who were being held hostage at the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Zuurbekom in the West of Johannesburg.
It is believed about 200 people were being held inside, while 4 fatalities have been confirmed.
A security guard was also reportedly fatally shot in his car while apparently attending to the incident.
The attack by a group of armed people “may have been motivated by a feud” between church members, the police statement said.
The church is one of the largest and reportedly richest – in South Africa.
“Trouble has been brewing at the church following the death of its leader‚ Glayton Modise‚ in February 2016,” The Sowetan newspaper reported in 2018.
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff and news agencies)
