A terrorist attack targeting high concentration areas in South Africa could take place as early as Saturday, according to a statement released this Wednesday by the US embassy in the country.  

"The US government has received intelligence that terrorists may be planning to carry out an attack against large gatherings of people at an unspecified location." wrote the American government.

According to the US government note, the attack could take place in unspecified areas of Sandton in Johannesburg.

"There is no further information on the timing, method, or target of the potential attack." reads.

In fact, the US government is advising people to avoid crowds during the weekend between October 29 and 30.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, assured that the South African government is continuously assessing the threats and will inform the public of any imminent attacks.

"We continue to monitor any threats to our citizens, to our nation. Threats are continually assessed and acted upon to ensure everyone's safety," he said.

Sandton is home to many of South Africa's largest companies, as well as many multinational corporations, including American companies.

Many of South Africa's biggest companies, including financial services group FirstRand, chemical company Sasol, insurer Discovery, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, law firms and international auditing companies such as Ernst & Young have their headquarters in Sandton. There is also a multifaceted retail space in the suburb, which attracts crowds of tourists and locals at weekends.

South African analyst Martin Ewi, Regional Coordinator of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said that the population should heed this warning without panic because none of the last warnings materialized, although he acknowledged that the country has a high potential for terrorist attacks.

"We simply have to take basic precautionary measures just to make sure that if something happens we can minimize the damage," he told the television channel SABC News noting that the main problem with these warnings is that they don't specify the times and places of possible attacks. "In this particular case we have a bit more information."