Cape Town – Four boys who spent Monday afternoon playing underneath the N2 highway bridge, across Borcherds Quarry Road next to Nyanga, suffocated after the walls of a hole they had been digging next to a bridge collapsed on top of them.
Emergency vehicles were on the scene last night into the early hours on Tuesday. Traffic on the N2 was diverted to the R300. Members of the community gathered for news of the tragedy.
Ward 39 councillor Khaya Yozi (ANC), whose constituency borders the N2 and Borcherds Quarry Road, said community leaders were on the scene.
The area next to the N2, he said, had for years served as a recreational space for the youth of the adjacent informal settlements, which because of their density was the only open space where the area’s football teams practised and children played.
“We never imagined that it could be such a danger. We don’t know how this bridge was built and that it was so hollow inside,” said Yozi.
On Monday evening, The City of Cape Town’s emergency services confirmed three bodies had been retrieved from the hole and rescuers were still searching for a another child.
“An emergency call was received at 3.10pm about minors who fell into a hole near the N2/Borcherds Quarry intersection. Gugulethu and Mitchells Plain fire crews were dispatched to the scene.
“The officer informed the Control Centre that three minors fell into a hole. Technical rescue teams from Roeland Street and Metro EMS were dispatched. Just after 6pm the bodies of two minor boys were retrieved,” said Cape Town Fire & Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse.
Carelse said the body of a third boy has been recovered at 9.01pm on Monday, and that at approximately 2.21am on Tuesday, the body of a fourth boy was discovered.
Community Policing Forum (CPF) provincial chairperson Fransina Lukas called on all parents to at all times know their children's whereabouts and with who their children were with.
Lukas said the prolonged school holiday left many children idle with not much to occupy them constructively.
She also urged parents to prioritise the safety of children, especially during hot-summer days when children ventured into dams and beaches unaccompanied.
Cape Argus