Five Tanzanians were among the 74 who died in Thursday’s blaze that engulfed a building in the South African city of Johannesburg, the country’s acting High Commissioner Peter Shija has said.
This is one of the first confirmations from an official of the nationalities of those who were killed, the Samantha Granville says.
Twenty Malawians were also among the dead, that country’s foreign ministry is quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.
The building was owned by the city of Johannesburg but it had been abandoned and then taken over – or “hijacked” – by criminals who rented out spaces to people desperate for housing.
Many among them were thought to be undocumented migrants.
The high commissioner told South African broadcaster eNCA that he had found out that 150 Tanzanians had been living there before the blaze.