South Africa: Toxic Gas Leak in Boksburg Settlement Kills 16 People, Including 3 Children

JOHANNESBURG: A toxic gas leak in an settlement in South Africa killed at least 16 people, including three children, police said Wednesday.

The tragic incident occurred on Wednesday night in Angelo informal settlement in the city of Boksburg, on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg, according to the South African Police Services.

Search and rescue teams were pressed into service working through the area trying to ascertain the extent of the casualties.

William Ntladi, spokesperson at Ekurhuleni Disaster and Emergency Management Services informed that three children, five women and eight men were among the dead.

He also said another 16 people were taken for treatment to a hospital, where four of them are in critical condition and 11 are said be in serious condition.

Ntladi said that the deaths on Wednesday were the outcome of a leak from a gas cylinder that was being kept in a shack in the settlement. He said an area of around 100- yard radius around the cylinder was being searched after the leak was stopped to ascertain that more casualties were not there.

However, the bodies were said to be still lying on the ground in the area, while forensic investigators and pathologists were making their way to the scene of the disaster, Ntladi said,.

Till the forensics team carried out their investigation and collected evidence, the bodies could not be moved from the scene, he explained.

According to the initial information gleaned by the authorities, it was likely that the cylinder was being used by illegal miners inside a shack to process gold.

Illegal mining is common in the gold-rich areas in and around Johannesburg and miners venture into closed off and abandoned mines to search for any leftover deposits of gold ore.

As per information gathered on site, nitrate oxide was being used for the illegal mining activities to extract what is likely to be gold from the soil within the informal settlement, authorities said.

The incident occurred only six months since the gas tanker explosion in Boksburg on Christmas Eve which left 41 dead and scores injured.

The fuel tanker exploded after it got stuck beneath a bridge only a few metres away from the Tambo Memorial Hospital.

A security guard said on condition of anonymity that thieves had stolen away gas cylinders containing nitrate oxide. They were said to be cutting open one cylinder when things went wrong.

"They (the deceased) inhaled nitrate oxide and possibly died from that. Some inhaled it in their sleep," he said.

The Department of Health deployed a truck to collect the bodies from the site.

The guard added that among the deceased is an entire family and children.

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