South African authorities said that at least 21 teenagers, the youngest possibly being 13, died this weekend under mysterious circumstances after a night out at a township tavern.
Provincial officials said that many of the victims are thought to have been students who were celebrating the end of their high-school exams on Saturday night. Officials did not observe any visible wounds to the bodies of the deceased, and they have ruled out a stampede as a possible cause, saying autopsies would determine the deaths could be linked to poisoning.
Mysterious Deaths
On Sunday, large groups of people, including parents whose children were missing, gathered outside the tavern where the target happened in the city of East London while mortuary vehicles collected the bodies.
Senior government officials rushed to the southern city where the deaths were discovered. They included national Police Minister Bheki Cele, who immediately broke down after emerging from a morgue where the bodies were being stored.
In a statement, the official said it was a "terrible scene," adding that the victims were very young. The provincial government of Eastern Cape noted that eight girls and 13 boys were among the deceased, as per CBS News.
The incident comes as drinking is permitted for people over 18 years old in township taverns, commonly known as shebeens, which are often situated cheek by jowl with family homes or, in some cases, inside the homes themselves.
However, safety regulations and drinking-age laws are not always enforced in the region as the parents of a 17-year-old boy said that their child was among the victims. They said they did not think their loved one would die in this manner, calling him humble and respectful.
According to the New York Post, the spokesman for the Department of Community Safety in Eastern Cape Province, Unathi Binqose, said that initial findings suggested that there was a stampede at the overcrowded nightclub.
South African Teenagers
In a statement, East London Mayor Xola Pakati said that what happened equates to a "massacre." The official noted that while the country's president was still waiting for more information, his thoughts were with the families who lost their children.
A police spokesman, Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana, said that law enforcement officials had received a call about 4:00 a.m. local time reporting deaths at the tavern. He added that the tavern held a large party on Saturday night that served as a celebration of South Africa recently lifting its mask requirement for public places.
A spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial health department, Siyanda Manana, said that the party attracted many people, which was more than the tavern could accommodate. The official said they would immediately conduct autopsies on the bodies to determine the cause of death.
At the scene of the deaths, many people gathered were trying to find their loved ones as Cele told a huge crowd that the call was on the parents to see that their kids were kept well. He added that the call on the community was to keep children from dying untimely deaths, CNN reported.
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