Mob beats foreigner to death on Durban street

A foreign national was beaten to death by a mob of about 50 people on a Durban street on Thursday morning, South African police said. The victim, a man in his late 30s or early 40s, was attacked after two males broke away from a group marching down the road and approached him. He was declared dead at the scene.

The South African Police Service said the motive is unknown. A spokesman told the BBC his office would not speculate and would release no further information until it could be verified, and the service refused to confirm or deny whether the marching group were anti-migrant protesters. Officers urged community members not to spread unverified information.

The killing follows weeks of unrest in the port city. Durban saw large anti-migrant protests in early October, including a demonstration on October 8 in which at least 14 vehicles and several buildings were set on fire. Similar riots hit Soweto, near Johannesburg, and the demonstrations are ongoing. Nigeria, Mozambique and Malawi say some of their nationals were attacked and killed by mobs during anti-migrant riots over the summer, and tens of thousands of migrants have fled South Africa during and after the unrest. Most of the demonstrators are black South Africans angry at what they see as a government tolerating large-scale illegal immigration that harms the job market and drains public resources. The government's response has been to ask participants to remain peaceful.

The violence has a diplomatic echo. In September, Washington imposed visa restrictions on South Africans, citing racial discrimination against Afrikaners and other minorities, while opening a special refugee programme for selected applicants whose names are kept secret. The people dying at the hands of Durban mobs are not Afrikaners but other Africans — Nigerians, Mozambicans and Malawians, migrants whose presence the government is accused of tolerating and whose killers it now investigates.

Police are investigating Thursday's killing and have asked residents not to spread unverified information about it. In a separate incident reported by the Daily Mail, a father travelling with his children shot a group of carjackers who tried to hijack his vehicle, killing one of them.