(Johannesburg) At least 24 people, including children, were killed after a gas leak in a slum near Boksburg, about forty kilometers east of Johannesburg, we learned Wednesday evening from the emergency and fire services.
“We have counted 24 bodies,” confirmed emergency services spokesman William Ntladi, on the spot, adding that the search was continuing in the slum.
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. A leak from this cylinder would have poisoned the inhabitants of this camp, 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,” he added.
The incident being “still in progress, we are busy checking the entire affected area to determine” whether other deaths or injuries are to be deplored, added the spokesman, adding that he had sent teams to hospitals in the region. .
“Children are among the dead, women too,” he added.