According to officials and emergency services, a suspected subterranean gas explosion in South Africa resulted in one fatality and 41 injuries.
The explosion, which reportedly occurred on Wednesday, tore open streets and turned cars over in the center of Johannesburg, the capital city of South Africa.
The explosion’s origin is still a mystery. The South African government, however, stated that it is under investigation for advising the people to take alternate routes to give the necessary authorities time to do their job on the spot.
According to Aljazeera, the business that provides gas to that area of the city claimed it did not think that its subterranean pipelines, as initially suspected by officials, were to blame.
According to Robert Mulaudzi, a spokesman for Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services, the corpse of the deceased was discovered during a midnight investigation of the blast scene.
According to Aljazeera, investigators were working to ascertain whether there were any further subterranean wires or pipes in the region, whether there was a risk of another explosion, and whether there was a gas leak.
Johannesburg’s provincial premier, Panyaza Lesufi, was quoted by the news organization as adding, “We are still looking for the source.”
He claimed that while the other 36 injured persons had been released from the hospital, 12 others were still receiving medical treatment at various Johannesburg hospitals.
On Wednesday night, several residents were forced to flee the region out of concern for a second explosion or the possibility of multiple-story buildings collapsing in the city’s core. It was “extensive” damage, according to Mr. Lesufi.
On Thursday morning, however, individuals returned to the busy area in Johannesburg’s central business district, either to go back to their homes or to go to work.
Five city blocks’ worth of damage, according to the authorities, including at least six affected roadways. At least 34 vehicles sustained damage, some of which were placed on top of or on the sides of other vehicles. Others fell into gaping fissures that suddenly erupted in the midst of roads, and the destruction looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic film.
One of South Africa’s most widely used modes of transportation and the majority of the damaged cars were minibus taxis. According to witnesses, some of the passengers in the minibuses were thrown into the air by the explosion.
A witness reported hearing “a big sound” while driving to the local television channel eNCA. I was in the air and my car was flipping over the next thing I knew,” he recalled. He claimed to be startled but unharmed.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, people could be seen escaping as smoke poured out of a road fissure.
The dead were found when rescue workers dug through some of the wrecked, flipped cars and neighboring buildings late into the night as the injured figure increased from the initial nine individuals reported on Wednesday.