South Africa was struck by tragedy on Wednesday night. Sixteen people, including children, died after a gas leak in a slum in Boksburg, about 40 kilometers east of Johannesburg, we learned from the emergency services, which revised downward this balance sheet overnight.
“We have confirmed the death of 16 people on the spot”, eight men, five women and three children, said the spokesman for the emergency services William Ntladi, adding that 16 others had been injured. Among these injured, “four are hospitalized in critical condition, eleven are stable” and the last, a minor, “is now fully conscious”.
A bottle of nitrate oxide would be at the origin of the drama
“The intervention of the paramedics made it possible to resuscitate other people who were taken to the hospital”, added William Ntladi, without further explanation on this revised toll of 16 dead, a few hours after an initial announcement by the authorities. “at least 24 dead”.
Called around 8 p.m., initially to what appeared to be an explosion, emergency services found it to be a gas leak. A bottle of nitrate oxide was found at the scene. “When we arrived, we saw dozens of people lying all over the area due to the inhalation of this toxic gas,” said the spokesman.
A gas used for “illegal mining activities”
A leak from this cylinder would have poisoned them, according to the first elements of the investigation. “It would be a gas leak from a bottle, which would be nitrate oxide, a very toxic gas which affected the inhabitants of this informal district of Boksburg”, explained William Ntladi. “Preliminary information indicates that these people were using this gas in the context of illegal mining activities,” he said. “Apparently the underground miners were using the gas to extract the gold from the ground.”
The rescuers and then the scientific police patrolled the entire affected area late at night, a bric-a-brac of miserable brick and corrugated iron shacks. The slum is located at the foot of an old abandoned mine. During the night, neighbors gathered around a fire to watch the ballet of police and scientists in uniform.
Plagued by endemic unemployment, South Africa has thousands of illegal miners nicknamed “zama zamas”, who often live in squats. Those “who try and try again”, in the Zulu language, go down into abandoned mines because they are often not profitable enough and try to extract what is left of precious metals, stones or even coal.