An overnight fire in a multi-story building in Johannesburg has left more that 70 people dead, Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi confirmed on Thursday.
On the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Mulaudzi reported that 73 bodies had been recovered while 52 others were injured.
Mulaudzi told television channels that some bodies were burned beyond recognition. The youngest victim was aged less than two years old, he said.
Search and rescue operations are still taking place and the death toll could rise further, as the floor-by-floor search for bodies progresses.
Initially, 10 people were confirmed dead in the early hours of the morning. However, the number of fatalities increased rapidly as further bodies were recovered.
Multiple patients were being treated on the scene and transported to various healthcare facilities, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire.
Television footage showed fire trucks and ambulances outside the cordoned off red and white building with burned-out windows.
While the fire had been largely extinguished, smoke still seeped out of the windows of the building. Strings of sheets hung out of some of the windows, authorities said.
They were not sure if people had used those sheets to try and escape the fire or to save their possesions.
Witnesses present at the scene said as many as 200 people might have been living in the building in a deprived area of South Africa's largest city.
The building was an "informal settlement" where homeless people took shelter without any lease agreements, according to Mulaudzi.
