JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Muhsin Hendricks, considered the world's first openly gay imam, was shot dead Saturday near the southern city of Gqeberha, South African police said.

The imam, who ran a mosque intended as a safe haven for gay and other marginalized Muslims, was in a car with another person when a vehicle stopped in front of them and blocked their exit, police said.

"Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle," the Eastern Cape force said in a statement.

"Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks, who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed."

A police spokeswoman confirmed to AFP the authenticity of a video on social media that purported to show a targeted killing in Bethelsdorp near Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth.

"The motive for the murder is unknown and forms part of the ongoing investigation," police said, urging anybody with information to come forward.

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association denounced the killing.

"The ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime," executive director Julia Ehrt said in a statement.

Hendricks, involved in various LGBTQ advocacy groups, came out as gay in 1996. He ran the Al-Ghurbaah mosque at Wynberg near his birthplace Cape Town.

The mosque provides "a safe space in which queer Muslims and marginalized women can practice Islam", its website states.

Hendricks, the subject of a 2022 documentary called "The Radical", had previously alluded to threats against him.

But he insisted that "the need to be authentic" was "greater than the fear to die".

South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with some 28,000 murders in the year to February 2024, according to police data.

© Agence France-Presse