An overnight apartment block fire in South Africa's largest city, Johannesburg, has left more than 70 people dead, officials said on Thursday.

At least 52 others were injured in the blaze that swept through the five-story building taken over for illegal housing.

It was not yet clear how the fire started. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described the incident as "a great tragedy."

The cries of despair from relatives of the victims filled the air as Ramaphosa visited the site in the evening.

"It's a wake-up call for us to begin to address the situation of housing in the inner city," he said.

Thembalethu Mpahlaza, the head of forensic services in Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located, reported the recovery of 74 bodies.
"We are having 12 children involved also in this tragedy," he told a press conference.

Trapped residents tried to jump to safety

"This is a tragedy for Johannesburg. Over 20 years in the service, I've never come across something like this," Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said.

Witnesses said some people jumped from the building to try and escape the inferno.

"I saw a guy jumping from the fourth floor," Thando le Nkosi Manzini, a student who saw the blaze from the street.

"Some... got out through windows, women and children were left behind and they died while inside," said resident Irene Ntamba.

"We lost all our things that got burnt, our papers and our money." 

Multiple patients were being treated on the scene and transported to various health care facilities, officials said.

'Hijacked' buildings in Johannesburg 

President Ramaphosa hoped the ongoing investigation into the cause of the fire would aid in preventing a similar tragedy.

Like many others in Johannesburg's city centre, the building was abandoned but was being occupied by people struggling to find housing.

City of Johannesburg officials told DW's correspondent, Dianne Hawker, that it owned the building, but that it had been "hijacked" by illegal landlords and then converted without official permission.

"You've got a building where you've also got an illegal encampment inside, you've got cardboard structures, you've got people living in tents within you've got zinc structures within. It's not an ideal situation within which to fight a fire at all," Hawker said. 

Politicians at the scene said some buildings around the one gutted by the fire were also "hijacked."

Gauteng province's police commissioner, Lt. Gen. Elias Mawela said police were aware of approximately 700 buildings in central Johannesburg that were derelict and abandoned by their official owners. 

lo,tj,mk/rt (AFP, Reuters, AP)