At least 24 people, including children, have died in South Africa, as a result of a gas leak in a shanty town near Boksburg, some 40km east of Johannesburg, emergency services reported on Wednesday evening.
“We have counted 24 bodies,” emergency services spokesman William Ntladi told French news agency AFP from the scene, adding that the casualty toll could rise since searches were continuing in the shanty town.
“Children are among the dead, women too,” he added.
Called at around 8pm, initially for what appeared to be an explosion, the emergency services found that it was a gas leak. “I can confirm there was gas poisoning. A cylinder of nitrate oxide was found on the scene,” Ntladi explained.
