JOHANNESBURG, June 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Many women murdered in crime-ridden South Africa lost lives at the hands of their intimate partners, found the country's first national study of female homicides.

    Every six hours in South Africa, one woman is killed by her intimate partner, setting the world's highest rate of intimate femicide, the study showed.

    Nearly nine women out of every 100,000 females aged 14 years and over were killed by people having close relations with them, among whom half were murdered by men, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported Sunday.

    "South Africa has the highest rate of intimate femicide of any country in the world where it has been studied," Dr. Naeemah Abrahams, specialist scientist in the Gender & Health Group under the Medical Research Council (MRC), was quoted as saying by the SAPA.

    A mass killing of seven people, which shocked entire South Africa last week, was the latest testimony of the study.

    Paul Meyer, 35, was believed by the police to shot three women and a man dead at their home in western Johannesburg on Wednesday,and one of the victims was his girlfriend.

    He killed his wife Adriana Meyer, 34, and two daughters in a Johannesburg hotel on Thursday, and then shot himself on Friday, with the same gun.

    The study also found that one in every five of the perpetratorsof intimate femicide had a legal firearm.

    Abrahams said this finding pointed to the need for better gun control and the seriousness of implementing the new Firearms Control Act.

    "We are particularly concerned about colored women, who have twice the risk of other racial groups in South Africa," said Abrahams.

    The researcher said another worrying finding was the low conviction rate of those known perpetrators, only 35 percent of whom were convicted of the crime.

    The study was jointly conducted by researchers with the MRC's Gender and Health Group, the Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology from the University of Cape Town and the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Enditem