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At least 16 people, including three children, have been killed by a toxic nitrate gas used by illegal miners to process gold in a settlement of overcrowded metal shacks, South African police and local officials said late Wednesday.
Emergency services initially announced that up to 24 people had died in the Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. But the police and Gauteng Provincial Chief Minister Banyaza Lesovi later said the death toll was confirmed as 16, after a recount of the bodies.
“It is not a pleasant sight at all. It is painful, exhausting and tragic,” Lisovi, who visited the place, was quoted by news reports as saying.
The teams were searching the area for other victims late at night. Victims’ bodies remained lying on the ground hours after the leak was reported at around 8pm as emergency services waited for coroners and pathologists to arrive to treat the scene. The bodies were still there as of 3 am.
“We can’t move anyone. Bodies are still in place on the ground,” emergency services spokesman William Ntlady said.
A forensic investigator was seen covering a child’s body with a blanket. Another body was seen covered with a white cloth with a shoe sticking out. It was placed under a strip of yellow police tape surrounding the area.
Police said the three children killed were 1, 6 and 15. Two people were taken to hospital for treatment.
Boksburg is the city where 41 people died after a truck carrying LPG got stuck under a bridge and exploded on Christmas Eve.
Ntlady said Wednesday’s death was caused by a leak of nitrate gas from a gas cylinder kept in a hut. He said the canister was emptied in the leak and teams were able to begin passing over an area of 100 meters (yards) from the cylinder to check for more victims.
People gather around a bonfire to keep warm in the Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg, South Africa, on July 6, 2023. (AP)
The detectives were rummaging through the narrow alleyways between huts, which are cast in darkness by the lack of street lighting – a situation common in the extremely poor slum settlements found in and around South African cities. Six police cars, an armored car and an ambulance were parked at the entrance to the settlement of Angelo.
Ntlady said media authorities indicated the drum that caused the leak was used by illegal miners to separate gold from dirt and rock.
Lesovi, the chief minister in Gauteng, posted on Twitter videos of dust inside a hut where at least four gas cylinders can be seen on metal stands. The video also shows what Lisofi said was the cylinder responsible for the leak lying on the floor next to the entrance to the hut.
The authorities did not say whether illegal miners they believe were responsible for the gas leak were among the victims. Illegal mining is rampant in the gold-rich areas around Johannesburg, with miners going into closed and abandoned mines to scavenge for any remaining deposits.
Deaths from underground mining are also common, and the South African government department 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 Welkom, central South Africa.
The Mining Ministry said the cause was methane.
Wednesday’s tragedy is likely to inflame more anger toward the illegal miners, who are often immigrants from neighboring countries, who work in organized gangs and blame them for bringing crime to the neighbourhoods.
Violence against illegal miners erupted last year and lasted for days in an area west of Johannesburg after a group of 80 men, some of whom are believed to be illegal miners, were accused of gang-raping eight women who were working on TV shoots in a deserted area.
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