Owner of South African bar where 21 teens died is arrested

 

 The owner of the bar in the South African coastal town of East London where 21 teenagers mysteriously died last month has been arrested, police in the Eastern Cape province said.
Provincial police said in a statement that the owner, aged 52, was arrested over the weekend, while two employees at the tavern were subsequently arrested on Tuesday.
Forensic teams are yet to reveal their conclusions on how the teens died, with a source close to the investigation saying one theory was a chemical or gas leak and authorities also investigating possible accidental poisoning.
The owner is now expected to appear before the East London Magistrates Court on August 19 to face charges after an investigation that focused on the alleged supply of alcohol to minors, the statement said.

“Just as we said in the beginning, investigation is a process and needs to be treated with extreme care,” Lieutenant-General Nomthetheleli Mene said in the statement.
There has been an outpouring of grief at the deaths at the nightspot in Scenery Park township, in a nation used to seeing casualties from a pervasive binge drinking culture. Angry mourners complained that weeks of calls to shut down the tavern went unheeded.
The results of the investigations into the causes of the victims’ deaths are still pending.