At least 75 people have been killed in South Africa as the country remains in the grip of its worst unrest since the end of apartheid following the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.
Footage shared on social media on Tuesday night appeared to show the Lenmed Hospital in Durban in flames while other videos showed shopkeepers opening fire on a crowd of looters.
Ten people were trampled to death during a stampede at a looted shopping mall in Soweto, Johannesburg as police and military eventually responded to the chaos, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets to try to halt the unrest.
The riots, centred around KwaZulu-Natal and Guateng provinces, began last week and raged through the weekend after 79-year-old Zuma was jailed for failing to cooperate with a corruption probe.
Tuesday also saw a community radio station ransacked and forced off the air some COVID-19 vaccination centres forced to close, disrupting urgently needed inoculations.
Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from stores, police Major General Mathapelo Peters said in a statement on Tuesday night.
He said 27 deaths were being investigated in KwaZulu-Natal province and 45 in Gauteng province.
In addition to the people crushed, Peters said police were investigating deaths caused by explosions when people tried to break into ATM machines, as well as other fatalities caused by shootings.
The army has been called in to help stem the unrest after fearful citizens began forming 'defence squads' to protect their homes and businesses amid warnings that food supplies could soon run short as supermarket owners shut up shop amid the widespread looting.
The deployment of 2,500 soldiers to support the South African police has so far failed to stop the rampant looting, although arrests were being made in some areas in Johannesburg, including Vosloorus in the eastern part of the city.
At least 1,234 people were arrested in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, authorities said, but the situation was far from under control.
The violence broke out after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court on Thursday.
He had refused to comply with a court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry investigating allegations of corruption while he was president from 2009 to 2018.
The unrest has since spiralled into a spree of looting in township areas of the two provinces, although it has not spread to South Africa's other seven provinces, where police are on alert.
'The criminal element has hijacked this situation,' said Premier David Makhura of Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg.
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