South African police on Thursday recovered the ninth body of a woman east of Johannesburg in two months, as a string of killings continues to stoke public anxiety.
South African police say it has launched a major operation to find those responsible after the body was found in Gauteng province.
The latest victim was found by a passerby in Villa Liza township in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on Thursday morning, according to police and local authorities. The woman was found partially naked and her identity has not yet been released.
Police have imposed a lockdown in Kempton Park in the Ekurhuleni municipality and officers mounted roadblocks after three partially naked bodies were found in the park this week.
War against killer
"We cannot continue picking up bodies," deputy police chief Tebello Mosikili told journalists in Dawn Park, where the latest body was found.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says the perpetrator or perpetrators behind the murders of several women in Ekurhuleni have declared war on the state.
"We'll get them,” Lesufi told SABC News.
Acting Gauteng Police Commissioner Major-General Fred Kekana said on Sunday that investigators were considering all possibilities.
Multiple victims
The latest discovery follows the identification of the eighth victim, 38-year-old Dineo Evelyn Motapane, whose body was found beside a road in KwaThema, Springs.
Motapane was last seen alive on Sunday, and her family identified her body at the Springs Mortuary on Wednesday. Police said she had not been reported missing before her body was discovered.
Another woman's identity has yet to be confirmed after her body was found behind a hotel in Rhodesfield.
Police have also warned the public about the risks associated with meeting strangers through online dating platforms as investigations into the deaths continue.
