Gas leak kills 17 including three children at illegal South Africa gold mine
At least 17 people including three children have died in a squatter camp east of Johannesburg after a leak of poisonous gas used by illegal miners.
Rescuers found bodies scattered over the Angelo settlement in the old mining town of Boksburg, with some of the victims apparently overcome in their sleep. The youngest among the dead was a one-year-old.
William Ntladi, a spokesman for the emergency services, said first responders on Wednesday evening found scores of people “lying all over the area, due to inhalation of this toxic gas”.
He said the cause of the incident “is alleged to be a nitrate oxide gas leakage from the cylinder used in an illegal mining activity in and around the settlement”.
Officials said a leaking gas cylinder was found in a shack full of mining equipment in the settlement of brick and corrugated iron dwellings.
Illegal miners, known locally as zama zamas, work many closed goldmines around Johannesburg and use the gas to extract the precious metal from soil.
The work is hard and perilous but the country’s 32 per cent unemployment rate means many are desperate to try.
Last month 31 zama zamas from Lesotho died in the Free State province after they were poisoned by methane gas while working a gold mine which had officially closed more than 20 years ago.
South African police said it was unclear who the Angelo miners were, and whether they were South Africans or informal migrants from neighbouring Lesotho. It was also unclear if they were among the dead.
Fifteen more people in hospital
Fifteen more people were in hospital after the leak, three of those in a critical condition.
Informal settlements in the area are often home to a mixture of South Africans and legal and illegal migrants, mostly from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Boksburg was the site of another tragedy on Christmas Eve, when a lorry carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) got stuck under a bridge.
The gas leaked and then exploded, killing 41 people and causing a nearby hospital to partially collapse.
Victims included people and medics who had approached the scene either to help or to view the trapped lorry.
Dozens at the hospital, including patients and staff members, sustained serious burns after the explosion smashed windows and caused its roof to collapse.
