By Hannes de Wet
Three people were killed and six were injured when a massive blast - believed to have been caused by a stockpile of commercial explosives - ripped through a quiet Pretoria suburb on Tuesday.
Emergency workers and police with dogs were still combing the rubble of three homes in Villieria for the remains of the dead late in the afternoon.
Asked how many bodies had been recovered, a police spokesperson, George Francis, said: "You can't really talk about bodies ... (it is) a leg here an arm there".
We are finding 'a leg here an arm there' Police and paramedics said they did not expect to find any more survivors.
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Initially, police believed four people had died in the 11.30am blast, but a Pretoria City Council paramedic, Johann Claasen, said late on Tuesday afternoon that only three were believed to have been killed.
Two women, both critically injured, were removed from the rubble and taken to Pretoria Academic Hospital. They were in the kitchen of the house at the centre of the blast, Claasen said. They suffered mostly chest injuries.
Four other people were slightly injured.
"They were screaming and shouting from beneath the rubble as emergency workers were digging to reach them," Claasen said.
Two children are said to be unaccounted for People at the scene said two children were unaccounted for in the blast, but this could not be confirmed.
Three adjacent houses were destroyed in the blast while six others on either side of these three were declared unsafe for occupation.
The explosion left a crater about three metres deep, according to a security guard posted at the cordon that was thrown across the scene in 27th Avenue in Villieria, just north of central Pretoria.
The house at the centre of the blast was believed to have belonged to a professional blaster and police suspect a stockpile of commercial explosives detonated accidentally.
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