Gunmen stormed a home in a township outside the South African city of Pietermaritzburg and killed 10 members of the same family, police have said.
Police did not give a motive for the shooting.
Seven women and three men were killed, the police ministry said in a statement.
South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with about 20,000 murders recorded every year out of a population of 60 million.
"It's a crime scene, terrible. Too many people were lost here," Police Minister Bheki Cele said in comments broadcast on public broadcaster SABC from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province.
Cele said police management needed to sit down to talk about whether the province needed more police resources.
A Reuters photojournalist at the scene of the shooting saw a mortuary van in the yard of the homestead into which bodies of those killed were being loaded on a stretcher. Worried members of the community looked on.
Nine injured in attack in Taipei, media reports
Putin offers no compromise on Ukraine, says EU 'robbery' failed
Bangladesh rocked by unrest after death of student leader
Suspected gunman in Brown University shooting found dead
