JOHANNESBURG: Three people were shot dead in an altercation over firearms at an upmarket restaurant in South Africa`s economic hub Johannesburg on Thursday night.

It was the latest in a string of shootouts that reinforces the country`s bleak status as a murder capital.

The incident was sparked when the restaurant in Sandton Africa`s richest square mile told a businessman it did not allow guns on its premises.

`A man with a firearm wanted to enter the restaurant which has a nofirearm policy,` police said in a statement.

`That is when the altercation started, leading to a shooting between the man`s bodyguards and securities.

Two of the bodyguards died at the scene and the businessman died of his injuries at the hospital.

Four other people, including two restaurant customers, were nursing gunshot wounds.

`Preliminary investigation revealed that the man who started this has previously been arrested for a shooting incident also in Sandton last year,` police said.-AFP