Mobs of angry South Africans looted shops and attacked groups of immigrants as the wave of violence in the country claimed 42 lives, The Independent reported. In Cape Town, the center of South Africa's valuable tourist trade, 400 refugees sought shelter at a race track Friday after 12 people were hurt in overnight violence, the newspaper said.

The violence is aimed at immigrants from the neighboring country of Mozambique, which itself has declared a state of emergency to deal with its residents returning home from South Africa, the newspaper reported.

Some are blaming elements of South Africa's former apartheid regime for stoking the violence. Manala Manzini, South Africa's National Intelligence Agency director, told a conference of African intelligence chiefs he believed the violence was deliberately unleashed as a political act aimed at the next elections, the (Cape Town) Daily Dispatch reported.

Manzini reportedly told the conference the situation was similar to the pre-election period in 1994 when pro-apartheid elements had delivered weapons to mob leaders to use in attacking certain communities.