The death toll from a toxic gas leak that authorities blamed on an illegal gold processing operation in South Africa rose to 17, including three children, as the police removed canisters from a community of closely packed shacks and sifted through evidence on Thursday.

The leak of what authorities said was a toxic nitrate gas happened on Wednesday night in the informal Angelo settlement in Boksburg, a city on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg.

The three children who died were aged 1, 6 and 15, the police said. At least 10 people were hospitalised, including a 2-month-old baby, two 4-year-olds and a 9-year-old, according to Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of Gauteng province who gave an update on Thursday.

A statement from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said it was a “devastating and tragic loss of innocent lives”.

Bodies remained on the ground, some of them covered in sheets or blankets, for hours after the gas leak was reported around 8 pm (local time) on Wednesday as emergency service responders waited for forensic investigators and pathologists to do their work.

“It’s not a nice scene at all… It’s painful, emotionally draining and tragic,” Lesufi was quoted as saying in news reports as he visited the settlement on Wednesday night.

AP/PTI