Lerato Mbhiza
A suspected underground gas explosion ripped open roads and flipped vehicles in Joburg killing one man and injuring at least 41 people.
Eyewitnesses talk about their ordeal as they were confronted with the horrors of the explosion and its aftermath.
The cause of the blast, which happened during Wednesday’s evening rush hour in downtown Johannesburg, remained unclear. The company that supplies gas to that part of the city said it didn’t believe its underground pipelines were responsible.
An eyewitness to the explosion said it was around 5pm when he felt something like an earthquake but when he looked at the road, there were cracks followed by a big sound of something exploding like an active volcano.
“White steam was coming out of the hole in the middle of the road and it was like I’m dreaming,” he said.
Another witness said she was in her apartment when the explosion happened and she looked outside her window. “I saw a lot of people running and screaming cars upside down. There was a hole that was leaking gas. You could smell the gas outside and inside the building. I was very shocked. It was my first time seeing something like that”.
A taxi driver said he was lucky he wasn’t on the street when the explosion happened but he too felt the earthquake like tremors and smelled the gas.
“I went to check on what happened. I found many taxis on the road upside down. I was very lucky, he said. The impact on the explosion is that people working and living around Bree Street have no electricity and water and no officials have come to talk to us about the way forward,” he said
Emergency crews searched through some of the mangled, overturned vehicles and nearby buildings deep into the night.They discovered the body as well as a number of injured people.
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