A staff member shows an illegal rifle to be melted at a factory of the Scaw Metals Group, Germiston, southeast of Johannesburg, South Africa, on Oct. 20, 2016. South African police on Thursday destroyed 22,999 firearms here which were used to commit crimes in various parts of the country. The murder rate increased for the third straight year in a row as 18,673 South Africans were murdered in financial year 2015/2016, leading to approximately 51 murders per day, an increase of over 4.9 percent over last financial year, according to the statistics released by SAPS in September this year. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)