JOHANNESBURG (AP) — At least 16 people, including three children, were killed by the leak of a toxic nitrate gas used by illegal miners to process gold in an informal settlement, police and local government agencies said on Wednesday.
The forces initially said that up to 24 people may have died in the Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a town on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. But police and Gauteng province premier Panyaza Lesufi later said the death toll had been confirmed at 16 after a recount of the bodies.
The teams were still searching the area for more victims. The bodies of the victims lay on the ground for hours after the leak was reported while emergency services waited for forensic investigators and pathologists to arrive.
“We can’t move anyone. “The bodies are still where they are,” said William Ntladi, spokesman for the emergency services.
An officer was seen covering a child’s body with a blanket. Another body was visible, covered with a white sheet, with a shoe sticking out. It was under a strip of yellow police tape sealing off the area.
According to police, the three children killed were aged 1, 6 and 15. Two people were taken to hospital for treatment, police said.
Boksburg is the city where 41 people died after a truck carrying LPG got stuck under a bridge and exploded on Christmas Eve.
Ntladi said Wednesday’s deaths were caused by a nitrate gas leaking from a gas cylinder kept in a shack. He said the canister had been emptied into the leak and teams could begin searching an area extending 100 meters (100 yards) from the cylinder to look for other casualties.
Ntladi said intelligence authorities had pointed out that the cylinder that caused the leak was being used by illegal miners to separate gold from earth and rock.
Lesufi, the Prime Minister of Gauteng, tweeted videos of the dusty interior of a cabin where at least four gas cylinders can be seen on metal stands. The video also shows that, according to Lesufi, the cylinder responsible for the leak was lying on the ground next to the hut’s entrance.
Authorities did not say whether illegal miners, whom they blamed for the gas leak, were among the victims.
Illegal mining is rampant in the gold-rich areas around Johannesburg, where miners are exploring for remaining deposits in abandoned and abandoned mines.
Mining fatalities are also common underground, and the South African government agency responsible for mining recently announced that at least 31 illegal miners are believed to have died in a gas explosion at an abandoned mine in the town of Welkom, central South Africa. The cause was methane gas, the mining authority said.
Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.