/ 29 August 1999

INITIATES KILLED IN BLAZE

FOUR initiates were burnt to death and 10 others seriously injured on Thursday night when their hut caught fire at a circumcision school in the Tsolo area of the Eastern Cape. Seven other initiates escaped unhurt. Umtata police spokesman Inspector Maphelo Ngame said the bodies were discovered on Friday after a resident alerted police. The injured were taken to a local hospital in Tsolo. The injured also suffered serious burn wounds. Police are still trying to establish the cause of the fire.