At least 16 tragically killed by toxic gas leak near Boksburg

At least 16 people, including three children, have been tragically killed by toxic gas leaking from a cylinder at an illegal gold mining operation at a township near Boksburg, east of Joburg, in South Africa.

Rescuers feared there may be up to 24 dead with searches being carried out in up to a 100-metre radius of the tragic shack-come-workshop where most of the victims were found suffocated.

The tragic news has made world-wide headlines.

Illegal gold miners – known as zama-zamas – had been using nitrate oxide in a large shack where they worked and slept to separate precious gold they extracted from dirt and earth.

The latest tragedy was confirmed by the Ekurhuleni Emergency Services who were called initially to what was described as an explosion, but which turned out to be a mass killing from the gas leak.

Spokesperson William Ntladi said:

“The search and recovery team is searching the shacks in and around the area where the cylinder leaked to verify if there are other casualties nearby.

“The bodies we have found had already died but others could have tried to escape and collapsed elsewhere so we won’t have a final toll until the whole scene has been fully examined.

“We do not know when the gas started leaking but when the emergency teams arrived at around 8pm on Wednesday night the cylinder which had leaked into the shack was already empty.”

Nitrate oxide is colourless and odourless and the victims would have had no idea they were inhaling it. In enclosed areas the gas would knock them out and then suffocate them.

Another Ekurhuleni EMS officer, who spoke to TimesLIVE, said that women and children were among the dead, with their bodies scattered in different parts of the settlement near the leak.

He said:

“The zama-zama guys live amongst the community and clean and refine their gold here using gas cylinders, but sadly this time the gas leaked resulting in sleeping people suffocating.

“Others who were awake died as they tried to run but the fumes were too much to bear. The scene is horrific with bodies lying everywhere, waiting for the forensic teams to arrive.”

The youngest victims are believed to be aged 1, 6 and 15; and last night the informal settlement was in shock as police, fire brigade and ambulance paramedics searched for other victims.

On Christmas Eve, in the same settlement of Boksburg just East of Johannesburg, many suspected miners were killed when a lorry carrying liquefied petroleum gas exploded under a bridge.

And in June it was revealed at least 31 illegal miners were killed underground in a gas explosion while illegally excavating a disused mine in Welkom in the Free State Province.

A township elder, fearful of upsetting the zama-zamas, said: “There is nothing we can do about them. They are too powerful and too dangerous. They live amongst us in the Angelo area. What has happened has destroyed Angelo – there are bodies wherever you look.”

The illegal gold miners are in a constant battle with the South African Police and in July last year eight models who were filming a music video near an abandoned mine were gang raped.

The zama-zamas had held them at gun point in Krugersdorp, near Johannesburg, and put them through a horrific ordeal which lead to revenge attacks by shack owners with machetes and golf clubs.

Most of the miners enter South Africa illegally from neighbouring countries and break into disused and abandoned gold mines, and try to dig out precious nuggets that have been missed.

There are believed to be as many as 30,000 of them operating illegally, mainly in the gold-rich Johannesburg region.

A South African Police source said: “They are a law onto themselves and are always heavily armed, and wherever they set up camp, rape and murder and violence follows behind them.”

The Minister of Police Bheki Cele has ordered repeated raids on the zama-zamas and there have been widespread arrests but once deported they drift back over the border and resume mining.

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