Death toll rises in South Africa riots over Zuma jailing
Crowds looting and setting alight shopping centres clashed with police in several cities on Tuesday. A baby being thrown from a building in Durban that was on fire after ground-floor shops were looted. A day earlier, 10 people were killed in a stampede during looting at a shopping centre in Soweto.
The military has been deployed to help police overstretched since the unrest began last week. South African police said they had identified 12 people suspected of provoking the riots and that a total of 1,234 people had been arrested.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had called it some of the worst violence witnessed in South Africa since the 1990s, before the end of apartheid, with fires started, highways blocked, and businesses and warehouses looted in major cities and small towns KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.
Ministers have warned that if looting continues, a risk area could run out of basic food supplies soon but have ruled out declaring a state of emergency.
The child was caught by a crowd of people who rushed to help those trapped in the apartment block in the central business district of Durban, a coastal city in KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday afternoon. Those stealing from shops on the ground floor of Smith Street had started the fire, which spread, affecting those living upstairs.
The Nomsa Maseko says that after catching the baby, the passers-by and neighbours rushed to get ladders to help other residents, including children, escape. The mother was reunited with her baby but was too emotional to talk. The rescue services arrived after about 20 minutes to help douse the fires.
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