Two foreigners and three South Africans have been killed in some of the country's worst violence in years.

Mike Hutchings / Reuters South Africa's President Jacob Zuma speaks in parliament in Cape Town, Feb. 19.

At least five people were killed and hundreds more forced to leave their homes in South Africa in recent days after a spate of attacks on foreigners in the country, according to local police. Stringer / Getty Images

The unrest is centered in and around Durban, a port-city on the country's Indian Ocean coast. A 14-year-old boy is among the fatalities, according to local police. "We want this message to go for the entire human race. To know that the black people from foreign Africa are being burned alive," Abdurahman Hakizimana, a Burundian living in Durban, told Reuters on Tuesday. Police said they have made dozens of arrests.

"Seventy four arrests have been effected thus far for offenses including murder, public violence, business robbery, theft, and possession of firearms and ammunition," police said in a statement Getty Images

"Police are deployed and in high alert in most of the areas where there are foreign nationals," police colonel Jay Naicker said in an email to the Associated Press. Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni called for an end to the violence. "We once again discourage people from taking the law into their own hands and caution that those found to be breaking the law will be prosecuted," she said. "They must stop committing criminal activities and report those suspects wanted by the police for crimes that were already reported in the area."

Some South Africans believe immigrants coming from the rest of the continent are taking jobs and opportunities away from locals. Stringer / Getty Images