Spate of toddler deaths sparks riot in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG South Africans are expressing shock over the murder of two toddlers whose bodies were found in a toilet in a township north of Johannesburg.

Police say three people had been taken in for questioning and that police were also searching for a fourth person, Sky News reports.

The two girls, who were cousins, went missing on Saturday from outside their home while playing with friends, BBC reports.

Angry residents in the Diepsloot area held violent protests on Tuesday after the bodies of the girls, who were 2 and 3 years old, were discovered. Local media say the crowd looted shops and burned tires in the streets. The area was quiet Wednesday.

Residents accuse police of failing to provide security for their community.

Last month, a 5-year-old girl was also found murdered in the same area.

In a separate case, the bodies of two other children were found in a field in Katlehong township in East Rand, Sky News reports.

The children, aged 1 and 3, were found next to their mother, who had been critically injured, according to iAfrica.com.

Police Colonel Katlego Mogale said: "It appears as if they were dropped by the husband in an open place and then the husband drove away. They are all Mozambican nationals."

President Jacob Zuma's office is reporting a separate case of a young boy whose body, bearing marks of torture, was found in a field east of Johannesburg.

Zuma says in a statement that the gruesome incidents "do not belong to the society that we are continuously striving to build together."