At least 63 people have died and 43 have been injured in the fire that broke out at dawn this Thursday in a building in the South African city of Johannesburg (north). The authorities have indicated that they have not yet established the causes of the fire.

“Firefighters are currently responding to a building on fire” in downtown Johannesburg, the city’s Emergency Management Services spokesman, Robert Mulaudzi, reported via the X social network (formerly Twitter).

According to the last count, “63 bodies have been recovered and there are 43 wounded”, while “search and recovery operation continues“, detailed Mulaudzi. The spokesman explained to local media that the firefighters were alerted to the fire around 01:30 local time (23:30 GMT on Wednesday) and that among the deceased is “a child who could be between one and two years”.

“It is a five-story building that caught fire in the early hours of Thursday. We managed to evacuate the people inside as soon as we arrived, while we were carrying out firefighting operations,” he detailed. Among the affected survivors, who were taken to hospital, some suffered minor injuries, while others inhaled smoke.

According to Mulaudzi, the fire was already contained and now they were busy with the “shutdown operationsThis is the third building fire in Johannesburg in recent months, according to South African media reports, after two minors died in another incident in June.