South Africa: Gas leak poisoning may have killed 21 teenagers in a club

A gas leak may have killed 21 young people who were found dead over the weekend in a popular nightclub outside the city of East Landon on the east coast of South Africa.

All the victims were teenagers and the youngest was a 13-year-old girl. There are many survivors, some of whom are being treated while others have suffered nothing.

The death of young people spread sadness and anger in the country. Relatives of the victims said that for weeks they insisted on closing the nightclub, to no avail.

A spokesman for the forensic service declined to comment on the findings until a final report was issued.

The authorities of the province of Eastern Cape said in their announcement that the necropsy-necropsy was performed on the 21 victims and samples have been taken which will be examined in a laboratory. Police, for their part, said only that the investigation into the causes of the tragedy was continuing.

Authorities have ruled out the possibility that young people were trampled by the crowd and believe they were accidentally poisoned by something they ate, drank or smoked. However, a source told Reuters that they were considering the possibility of being poisoned by a gas on the ground floor of the building, which did not have adequate ventilation. An investigation is underway to determine if they were poisoned by carbon monoxide, by burning propane inside the club or by some other gas, he added.

The same source said that the corpses gave off a strange “chemical smell”. Police are examining all the devices found at the scene.

Some of the victims who were taken to hospitals said they felt chest and back pain.

Few residents of the Sineri Park district, where the tragedy took place, protested today outside the club, whose operating license was revoked on Monday.