A gang of gunmen broke into the set of a music video and raped eight young women who were part of the cast near a small South African town, police said on Friday.

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South African Police Minister Bheki Cele said three of some 20 suspects had so far been arrested following the assaults which occurred on Thursday on the outskirts of Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg.

He told reporters that the gang attacked the casting team while they were unloading equipment and setting up a set.

The women were aged between 18 and 35, he said, pointing out that one of the women had been raped by ten men and another by eight.

Men were also stripped naked and stripped of their belongings.

"It seems that they (the suspects) are foreign nationals, basically they are zama zamas (illegal miners)," Cele told reporters on the sidelines of the political conference of the ANC, the party in power, in Johannesburg.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced at the same conference that he had ordered the Minister of Police "to ensure that the perpetrators of this crime are arrested".

A rape is reported to the police on average every 12 minutes in South Africa. However, not all rapes are reported in the country.