Shocking video has captured the moment a man narrowly avoided being crushed by minibuses that were thrown into the air by a suspected underground gas explosion in South Africa.
The footage, captured in the country’s capital Johannesburg during rush hour on Wednesday, shows a line of minibuses blasted several metres into the air as the explosion ripped open a road.
Pedestrians can be seen jumping out of the way, including one man who appears to be a street vendor, who missed being hit by a bus by just a fraction of a second.
One person died and 48 were injured in the blast.
People were evacuated from the area amid fears of a second explosion or that multi-story buildings in a rundown part of the city could collapse.
Huge cracks and holes had opened in the middle of roads, some so big that vehicles slid down into them.
“Buildings are in danger of collapsing,” said Panyaza Lesufi, the premier of Gauteng province where Johannesburg is located. “The damage is extensive.”
Mr Lesufi said he had counted 23 vehicles flipped over by the explosion.
He said that gas was suspected to be the cause of the explosion but it was not clear if it was from a leak in the city’s underground pipes or from another, undetermined source.
The explosion happened at 5pm local time as many people were gathering on the street to catch a minibus taxi home. Several minibus taxis and other cars were lying on their sides or backs, some even on top of each other.
Witnesses said people were already inside some of the minibuses when they were thrown into the air by the explosion.
One man, who did not give his name, told television station eNCA that he was in his car when he heard “a big sound”.
“The next thing, I was in the air and my car was overturning,” he said.
Emergency crews searched through the mangled, overturned vehicles and nearby buildings. and Mr Lesufi said there could be more injured people. He said it was surprising but a relief that no deaths have been reported.
Mr Lesufi said rescue workers are worried about the amount of gas that had leaked out.
“This place is still dangerous,” Mr Lesufi said.
In the immediate moments after the explosion on the busy Bree Street in Johannesburg city centre, people were seen running as smoke poured out of a crack in the road.
Earlier this month, a toxic nitrate gas leak killed 17 people, including at least three children, in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg. That was blamed on an illegal gold processing operation in the settlement.
