Eleven patients are being treated at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Ekurhuleni after the overnight gas leak disaster at Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg. One more person has succumbed to gas inhalation, bringing the death toll to 17.
Ekurhuleni's emergency management service (EMS) initially said 24 people had died after nitrate oxide apparently leaked from a gas cylinder used by zama-zamas who operate from a shack in the informal settlement. Within hours, as emergency services attended to the scene, this was revised down to 16, including five women and three children.
Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi confirmed the death toll had risen to 17 in a briefing on Thursday morning.
Another person had died in hospital, he said.
Lesufi also gave an update on those in the Tambo hospital, saying: “One is on oxygen and there is one who unfortunately passed on”.
“Those that are with the hospital are 11, that's the figures I got on Thursday morning,” he said.
The premier said the area has since been declared safe.
Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko confirmed she would be conducting an oversight visit to the hospital.
This is a developing story
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Tambo hospital treating patients for gas inhalation as deadly leak claims 17 lives
Image: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Eleven patients are being treated at the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Ekurhuleni after the overnight gas leak disaster at Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg. One more person has succumbed to gas inhalation, bringing the death toll to 17.
Ekurhuleni's emergency management service (EMS) initially said 24 people had died after nitrate oxide apparently leaked from a gas cylinder used by zama-zamas who operate from a shack in the informal settlement. Within hours, as emergency services attended to the scene, this was revised down to 16, including five women and three children.
Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi confirmed the death toll had risen to 17 in a briefing on Thursday morning.
Another person had died in hospital, he said.
Lesufi also gave an update on those in the Tambo hospital, saying: “One is on oxygen and there is one who unfortunately passed on”.
“Those that are with the hospital are 11, that's the figures I got on Thursday morning,” he said.
The premier said the area has since been declared safe.
Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko confirmed she would be conducting an oversight visit to the hospital.
This is a developing story
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
READ MORE:
Three children among 16 to die in gas leak accident in Boksburg
Women and children among 24 killed in gas leak in Boksburg's Angelo informal settlement
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