A man was shot dead inside the Mitchells Plain Day Hospital on Monday in full view of patients, and mere metres from the local police station.

Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Traut confirmed that a 23-year-old man was killed by an unknown gunman at 10:45.

"The suspect fled the scene and he is yet to be arrested," he said.

Mitchells Plain Community Police Forum chairperson Abe Isaacs expressed dismay that the murder had taken place in a health facility.

He said it was unclear if the shooting was gang-related.

Gang tensions have recently flared up in Beacon Valley, Eastridge and Tafelsig, and an urgent plan to deal with the "genocide on the Cape Flats", which he described as a "silent civil war", needed to be formulated by the police, Isaacs insisted.