South African authorities said on Thursday that at least 16 people were killed by a leak of a toxic gas in Johannesburg neighborhood.
The local police indicated that three children were among the persons who died from a leak of toxic nitrate gas used by illegal miners to extract gold.
Emergency services initially announced that as many as 24 people might be dead in the Angelo settlement in Boksburg - a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg. Police said at a later time that the number of deaths had been confirmed as 16 after a recount of the bodies.
On June 23, a total of 31 people died inside an abandoned gold mine in Wellcome, 250 km south of Johannesburg, South Africa.
It is noteworthy that illegal exploration is common in South Africa's ancient gold mining areas, where miners go to closed and often dangerous mine lanes to dig for sediment.
Source: Qatar News Agency