Families have gathered to mourn 21 teens who died in a nightclub tragedy two weeks ago.
The youths had visited the Enyobeni Tavern in the East London borough of South Africa to celebrate the end of the school year.
They had gathered just a matter of days after the country lifted its mask mandate.
Only 21 teenagers were found dead at the inn – and the cause is still a mystery.
“It smelled like gas,” said survivors of the incident.
Now more than a thousand friends, family and community members have gathered for the mass funerals of those who died.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was on hand to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.
Coffins were carried to a large tent where the funeral was held.
However, two families chose to be buried privately and the coffins on display were empty, according to organizers.
A large choir sang emotional hymns in memory of the teens as their distraught families watched.
The children will be buried in various cemeteries later Wednesday and in the coming days, funeral service organizers told local reporters.
As the tent filled up, many more mourners sat outside.
It is still unknown what caused the deaths of the youths, who were between 13 and 17 years old.
A stampede is out of the question as the dead have no injuries befitting such an incident, police said earlier.
Pathologists study the cause of death using blood samples.
They were all under the age of 18, which is the legal drinking age in South Africa.
Authorities have closed the bar amid questions about how so many underage teens were able to gather after midnight on June 26 at an establishment that sells alcohol.
Earlier this week, Police Minister Bheki Cele burst into tears as he addressed the media on Sunday morning.
“You’ve heard the story that they’re young, but when you see them, you realize it’s a disaster,” he told reporters.
“When you look at their faces, you realize we’re dealing with children.”
Cele told reporters: “At first we were told this was a stampede, but it looks like there was no stampede.
‘I don’t want to speculate on the cause of death; so we brought in the best forensics team so that if the cause of death was poison, they’d let us know.”
Community members in East London say there is a known problem of underage drinking.
Although the legal drinking age is 18, it is not routinely enforced.
The Daily Dispatch newspaper reported that bodies lay “bizarrely as if they suddenly fell to the floor while dancing or in the middle of a conversation.”
The newspaper added that the bodies showed “no obvious signs of injury.”
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