The owner of this bar, aged 52, and two of the workers, aged 33 and 34, were taken into custody
Three people were arrested after mysterious death of 21 young people who were found dead in late June in a popular but illegal bar outside the town of East London on South Africa’s east coast.
The owner of the bar his, aged 52 yearsand two of the workers, aged 33 and 34, were taken into custody for providing alcoholic beverages to minors, police said without naming those arrested.
The owner will appear before a judge on August 19 on a charge of selling alcohol to minors. The two workers have already been fined 2,000 rand (120 euros) and will not appear in court unless they are unable to pay that amount.
The 21 youths, aged between 14 and 20, were found dead in mysterious circumstances at the Enyobeni bar in Cinery Park, East London. Most of the bodies were found inside the bar with no visible bruises, while some later died after being taken to hospital.
Authorities have ruled out that the youths were trampled because of the overcrowding and assume they were accidentally poisoned by something they ate, drank or smoked. However, the autopsy and the analyzes that have been done have not helped so far to determine the causes of their death.
Survivors spoke of a “suffocating smell” and eyewitnesses reported poisoning. A source told Reuters news agency that it is being considered that the victims were poisoned by some gas on the ground floor of the building, which did not have adequate ventilation. An investigation is underway to determine whether they were poisoned by carbon monoxide, propane burning inside the club or some other gas, he added.
“As we have been saying from the beginning, the investigation is ongoing and must be conducted with the utmost prudence and caution in order to arrive at the desired results,” said Eastern Cape police chief Momthetheleli Mene.
Angry relatives of the victims complain that their repeated calls for the illegal bar to be shut down have gone unheeded.
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