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UNUSUALLY QUIET ... Jules Street, Malvern, last night following violent attacks on foreign nationals. Businesses were looted, cars set alight in the attacks. Picture by Ufrieda Ho

Refugees fleeing into the night.

Families grabbing whatever they can and loading it onto trolleys, wheelbarrows, onto their backs.

For those lucky enough to have cars they overload them with whatever they can: clothing, furniture, electronic goods. An old Mercedes Benz so packed - with people, belongings, a fridge on its roof - turns a corner in front of us and its back door swings open, the occupants nearly falling out.

For the most part those fleeing carry with them just the bare essentials - a few items of clothing and blankets.

Streams of people fleeing into the night and in their wake burning homes, looted businesses, burnt out car wrecks. But most disturbingly news of people being killed, beaten, even set alight in attacks that too closely resemble ethnic cleansing.

But this is not a scene from an overseas country at war - or Sudan, the DRC, Rwanda. It is reality right here in suburban Johannesburg.

War had come to Jules Street, Malvern, and Primrose yesterday as South Africans turned on the foreigners living in their midst in another day of continuing xenophobic attacks in Gauteng.

Police vehicles patrol the streets, littered with burning tyres, broken glass, rubbish, and burnt out car wrecks, on the alert for any more attacks.

Car windows have been smashed, even those for sale in some of the many car dealerships Jules street is famous for.

Businesses have been vandalised, looted, some even set alight.

The windows of residents' homes have been indiscriminately shattered. But it's the homes of the foreigners that bare the worst brunt - their homes have been invaded, their furniture thrown out onto the street and in some cases the houses set alight.

For the past few days scores of foreigners have been injured and displaced in continuing attacks by South Africans on foreign nationals.

Attacks have occurred in Alexandra, Diepsloot, Thembisa and Thokoza on the East Rand.

Sapa puts the death toll at 13 with scores of injuries including a man set alight and seriously injured this morning.

The crime these people are paying for with their lives? Being a foreigner in South Africa - a hated makwerekwere.

Last night, for me the most heartwrenching things to witness are the groups of people, elderly grandmothers, mother with babies in their arms and wide-eyed children, fleeing into the night to find a safe place to rest and hide from any more attacks.

In nearby Primrose, a few shacks still smoulder after being set alight earlier in the day along Main Reef road. Police had closed off the road. The smoke from the burntout shacks and police tape flapping in the wind adds to the surreal feeling that we were in a war zone.

As we drive by a group of young women cautiously make their way across the road carrying small bundles in their arms.

On an open piece of veld nearby groups of men stand around small fires: one man doesn't even have a jersey to protect himself against the cold.

At a nearby petrol station groups of people - mostly elderly women - have found sanctuary for the night. They sit bundled under blankets on the grass rest area, which is lit up by the lights from the garage.

In an adjacent street bodies line the pavements under plastic bags, blankets, whatever they could find to try and keep warm. Most sit up, wide awake, watching, waiting.

It's going to be a long night for them - every person walking down the street, every car that turns the corner could mean another attack. The fear and tension is palpable.

Back in Jules Street police cars drive up and down - an armoured ambulance speeds by, lights flashing. At the local Shoprite a handful of Red Ants have been called in to guard the property.

In the dark criminals take advantage of the broken windows and doors of vandalised properties to break in and loot. Smashed tv sets, groceries, clothing, furniture lie amid the debris of the days attacks.

In a road just off Jules Street policemen are alerted to a breakin in progress: they arrive on the scene to arrest two young men.

Then they get a tipoff of a body lying outside a house in another nearby street. They go to the address but find no body.

A police officer takes us to a nearby shoe shop that had been looted: the front door to the shop had been broken down, the store's windows smashed.

Hundreds of empty shoe boxes lie scattered on the pavement.

The owner of the store had been to check up on his business earlier in the day - and had left satisfied that everything was in order. Now just a few hours later his business lies in ruin.

We are told the owner is an old Muslim man who had been trading in the area for years.

This is more worrying to the police as it seems to them that the attacks are now becoming more random - anyone now seems to be a target.

The police officer whom we are accompanying confirms that one of the cars that had earlier been set alight is owned by a Chinese who runs a corner business, and had been for years.

It almost midnight and Jules Street is quiet except for a few men walking the streets in groups, and shadowy figures that retreat as soon as our vehicle's lights fall on them.

The police remain in full force patrolling the area. So too the private security company guards, in their patrol vehicles.

We are lucky that we can call it a night and head home.

It's like entering another country. Just a few streets away life continues undisturbed - the flashing blue screens of television sets can still be seen from a few windows. At an all night eatery, a crowd of youngsters stop for burgers and Cokes, music and laughter blaring from their cars.

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