Cause of mass death of youths in South African night club revealed

Parents of the 21 young people who died in a tavern tragedy in June said they were suffocated, relaying to reporters what health department officials told them was the conclusion of an official probe.

Five parents on Thursday said the youths, the youngest of whom was a 13-year-old girl, died while partying in a popular nightspot in a township outside the coastal city of East London in the Eastern Cape Province.

The grieving relatives of the victims had been demanding answers as to how.

A spokesperson for the health department for the Eastern Cape province declined to comment on the results of the investigation and told reporters that  the probe would not be published. (Reuters/NAN)