Three men and a 16-year-old boy were stabbed to death in alcohol-fuelled violence in or near taverns in the Eastern Cape over the weekend, police said.

On Friday night, shortly after 11.00pm, Gordon Hendricks was chased, pinned to a pool table and stabbed twice in the chest in a tavern in Rivonia, Joubertina, said spokeswoman Priscilla Naidu in a statement on Sunday.

He died at the scene. One man was arrested.

In the early hours of Saturday morning Winston Rollison, 30, was stabbed in the neck during an argument with an 18-year-old about a woman outside a Kruisfontein tavern. The teenager was arrested.

In another fight over a woman in Kareedouw, 16-year-old Luvuyo Grootboom was stabbed in the neck in a tavern on Friday night, allegedly by a 21-year-old man. The attacker fled. Grootboom died on the scene.

Early on Saturday morning Luando Bambiso collapsed and died after running to his brother's house in Oceanview, Jeffrey's Bay. He too had been stabbed in the neck. Naidu said the alleged killer was known to the victim's family.

Sapa