There are fears of a mass poisoning after 22 revellers died at a South African nightclub with the youngest victim aged just 13.
The young people died at a nightclub and bar in the southern coastal town of East London over the weekend.
Specialists and authorities are still yet to establish the cause of the mysterious tragedy, which happened during end-of-school-year celebrations among local teenagers, but some say it was poisoning.
Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said on Sunday around 4am police were alerted by members of the public to the incident.
Toxicology tests will establish if the casualties were poisoned, officials said.
Bheki Cele, the police minister, spoke to an enraged crowd of relatives and residents at the cordoned-off crime site at Enyobeni Tavern in an impoverished neighbourhood known as Scenery Park.
He said they first thought it was a stampede, but then concluded no stampede seemed to have occurred.
He continued: “I do not want to speculate on the cause of death; that’s why we brought the top forensic team so that if the cause of death was some poison, they will let us know.”
However, Mr Cele did confirm that those who had died were between the ages of 13 and 17 - but a detailed list of the victims has not yet been produced.
He broke down in tears as he told reporters: "It’s a terrible scene. They are pretty young. When you are told they are 13 years, 14 years and you go there and you see them. It breaks [you].”
The legal minimum drinking age in South Africa is 18.
A 17-year-old girl, who only gave her name as “Lolly” said that the venue was a popular place for teenagers to meet up, but now the community wanted it shut down because of what happened.
She said the venue often sells alcohol to underage children and now everyone is angry at the tragic deaths as a result.
A local newspaper, DispatchLive, said its reporters had seen bodies lying bizarrely "as if they collapsed to the floor suddenly while dancing or in the middle of a conversation." It said there were also bodies "slumped across chairs and lying over tables”.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his "deepest condolences" to the families of the victims and said in a tweet: "This tragedy is made even more grave by its occurrence during Youth Month - a time during which we... advocate and advance opportunities for improved socio-economic conditions for the youth of our nation."
