24 Dead In S.African Slum Gas Leak: Emergency Services

Johannesburg, July 6 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Jul, 2023 ) :At least 24 people, including children, have died after a gas leak at a South African slum near Johannesburg, emergency services said late Wednesday.

The disaster occurred at the Angelo informal settlement near the district of Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.

"We counted about 24 fatalities," emergency services spokesman William Ntladi told AFP from the scene.

He said women and children were among the dead.

Emergency services received a call around 8 pm (1800 GMT) about a gas explosion, but on arrival they discovered it was "a gas leakage from a cylinder" containing a "poisonous gas", Ntladi said.

"Due to the scene still unfolding we are busy checking the entire area affected to ascertain numbers of hospitalised casualties," he added.

Preliminary information suggests the gas was being used "as part of illegal mining activities," he added.

With a dizzying unemployment rate of more than 32 percent, South Africa is home to thousands of illegal miners nicknamed "zama zamas" ("those who try" in the Zulu language).

Thousands of the unregistered miners scavenge obsolete mines for gold under arduous and often perilous conditions.

Boksburg, a middle-class suburb of Johannesburg, was last month struck by a 5.0 magnitude earthquake, thought to have been linked to the maze of underground tunnels and shafts associated with illegal mining in the area.