Gunmen have killed at least 12 people, including a three-year-old boy, in a mass shooting at a bar near the South African city of Pretoria, according to police.

Athlenda Mathe, spokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS), confirmed on Saturday that a total of 25 people were shot in the bar in Saulsville township, 18km (11 miles) west of Pretoria, adding that 14 had been taken to hospital.

Police said three minors were among the dead in the shooting, including the three-year-old, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl.

The shooting occurred in what Mathe described as an “illegal shebeen” – or bar – within a hostel at about 4:30am (02:30 GMT), with three gunmen indiscriminately firing at a group of men who were drinking.

Police were not alerted until about 6am (04:00 GMT). They said a manhunt had been launched and that the motive was as yet unknown.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised nation, is grappling with entrenched crime and corruption driven by organised networks.

The country has one of the world’s highest murder rates, spurred by robberies and gang violence, with some 63 people killed each day between April and September, according to police data.

“We are having a serious challenge when it comes to these illegal and unlicensed liquor premises,” Mathe said, adding that they are where most mass shootings occur.

“Innocent people also get caught up in the crossfire,” she told public broadcaster SABC.

In October, two teenagers were killed and five wounded in a gang‑related shooting in Johannesburg, the country’s financial capital.

In another incident in May, gunmen killed eight customers at a tavern in the southeastern city of Durban.

Last year, 18 relatives were shot dead at a rural homestead in the country’s Eastern Cape province.

Many people in South Africa own licensed firearms for personal protection, but there are many more illegal guns in circulation.