Five people were killed today as looters in South Africa destroyed shops and attacked drivers in a third day of xenophobic rioting.

Hordes of people - some armed with axes and machetes - terrorised Johannesburg hours after mobs tore through the township of Alexandra, forcing police to open fire with rubber bullets.

Police, who have so far arrested more than 90 people, fanned out across Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Many gutted, emptied shops remained closed as shop owners, many of them foreign, feared to return to their property.

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Plainclothes members of the South African Police Service patrol the Johannesburg township of Alexandra today

South African looters take a vending machine from a foreign-owned shops during a riot in the Johannesburg suburb of Turffontein

man kicks a burning piece of furniture during a riot in the Johannesburg suburb of Turffontein

Economic migrants from neighbouring Lesotho, Mozambique. Zimbabwe, as well as those from further afield, like Nigeria, are blamed for unemployment.

Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, called the violence 'sickening' on his Twitter yesterday.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he has dispatched a Special Envoy to South Africa to convey his concerns to President Ramaphosa.

In a video address diffused on Twitter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said attacks on businesses run by 'foreign nationals is something totally unacceptable, something that we cannot allow to happen in South Africa.'

'I want it to stop immediately,' said Ramaphosa, adding that the violence had 'no justification.'

Sporadic violence against foreign-owned stores and enterprises has a long history in South Africa, where many locals blame immigrants for high unemployment, particularly in manual labour.

But this week's assaults seem to have been on a greater scale than in the past, although the full details remain unknown.

South African looters run through tear gas smoke during a riot in the Johannesburg suburb of Turffontein on Monday

A Zulu resident of the Jeppe Men Hostel walks holding a traditional spear and shield in downtown Johannesburg today

Zulu residents of the Jeppe Men Hostel scream waving batons in central Johannesburg on Tuesday

Zulu men carrying sticks pour through central Johannesburg on Tuesday as police stand-by

A man sprints away from a cloud of teargas after making off with goods from a store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg on Tuesday

'They burned everything,' Bangladeshi shop owner Kamrul Hasan, 27, told AFP in Alexandra, adding that his shop gets attacked every three to six months.

'All my money is gone. If the (South African) government pays for my plane ticket, I will go back to Bangladesh,' he said.

Alexandra, one of the poorest urban areas in South Africa, is situated just three miles from Sandton, the city's gleaming business and shopping district.

Several Nigerians used social media to call for a boycott of South African companies, including telecoms provider MTN, satellite television service DSTV and retailer Shoprite.

Separately, African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat condemned the violence 'in the strongest terms' but said he was encouraged 'by arrests already made by the South African authorities'.

The attacks on foreign stores began a day after South African truckers started a nationwide strike to protest against the employment of foreign drivers.

On Monday, they blocked roads and torched foreign-driven vehicles in parts of the country.

At least another 20 people were arrested in connection with those attacks in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Zulu men residing at the Jeppe Hostel shout while waving a stick towards the police in Jeppestown, in Johannesburg on Tuesday

Zulu men carrying sticks, claws and machetes are gathered in front of a police officers in the Central Business District of Johannesburg on Tuesday

Zulu men residing at the Jeppe Hostel shout and wave stick during a speech given by the Police Minister General Bheki Cele in Jeppestown on Tuesday

Hordes of people armed with sticks run away from rubber bullets and stun grenades on Tuesday

Deputy President David Mabuza condemned all attacks on foreign nationals.

'We are a nation founded on the values of ubuntu (humanity) as espoused by our founding father, President Nelson Mandela... we should always resist the temptation of being overwhelmed by hatred,' he said at a meeting with ministers in Cape Town on Tuesday.

The violence erupted ahead of a meeting of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, where hundreds of political and business leaders will gather for three days from Wednesday.

David Makhura, the premier of Johannesburg's Gauteng province, said rioting was not a solution.

'This issue can be dealt with without resorting to xenophobia,' Makhura told reporters. 'There is no country that does not have foreign nationals'.

Opposition parties pinned the blame on the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Zulu men brandish sticks as they rush through central Johannesburg on Tuesday

A plainclothes police officer fires rubber bullets towards rioters in the Alexandra township today

Armed police ride through Alexandra in a truck today as looters targeted foreign-owned shops

Men walk through the streets of Jeppestown in Johannesburg on Tuesday

'South Africans are scared and lack real hope for the future,' said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa's official opposition. 'We are seeing economic and social collapse in action.'

Ramaphosa took office after elections in May that he won on a platform of reviving the country's economy and boost employment.

But in July, the national statistics office said joblessness had reached 29 percent - the highest since the country's quarterly labour force survey was introduced 11 years earlier.