Emergency services initially announced that perhaps 24 people had died in the Angelo Settlement, in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. However, police and Gauteng provincial premier Panyaza Lesufi later said the confirmed death toll was 16 after a body count.
“It is not a pleasant scene at all… It is painful, emotionally exhausting and tragic,” said Lesufi, who visited the place, according to various media.
Several teams combed the area overnight looking for more fatalities. The bodies of the deceased remained lying on the ground hours after the leak was reported around 8 p.m. as emergency services awaited the arrival of forensic investigators and pathologists to carry out procedures.
“We cannot move anyone. The bodies are still where they were on the ground,” emergency services spokesman William Ntladi said.
A forensic investigator was seen covering the body of a child with a white blanket with a shoe peeking out of it. The body lay next to yellow police tape with which the area was cordoned off.
Police said the three children who died were ages 1, 6 and 15. Two people were hospitalized for treatment, according to police.
Boksburg is the city where 41 people died after a truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas got stuck under a bridge and exploded on Christmas Eve.
Ntladi said the deaths on Wednesday were due to cyanide gas escaping from a cylinder kept in a cabin. He said the cylinder emptied due to the leak and special teams had scoured the area within 100 meters (109 yards) of the cylinder looking for more victims.
The researchers walked the narrow lanes between the huts in the dark from the lack of outdoor lighting, a common situation in extremely poor informal settlements in and around cities in South Africa. Six police vehicles, an armored car and an ambulance were positioned at the entrance to the Angelo settlement.
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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
FUENTE: Associated Press
