EARLY REPORTS of a “stampede” at the South African tavern where 22 teenagers died appear to be wide of the mark, according to local police.

A forensic team have found no visible injuries that would indicate a crush at the Enyobeni Tavern, and police are investigating whether some of the victims may have been poisoned.

Police said they had received frantic phone calls from within the venue at around 4am on Sunday in Scenery Park, a working-class community in East London city.

The teenagers had been informed that two celebrities would be turning up. Local reports say bouncers locked the doors and began spraying a gas on the children.

Sinethemba, not her real name, was quoted by Al Jazeera: “The man at the door, I think he was a bouncer, he closed the door and we couldn’t breathe. We suffocated for a long time and [were] pushing each other but there was no use because some people were dying.

“It smelled like gas. I’m not sure if it was tear gas or pepper spray. Then some people died and I also fell asleep for three hours. Then when they woke us up, they also thought I was dead.”

The youngest victim is just 13, police minister Bheki Cele has said. Following a briefing with local police in the southern coastal town of East London, Mr Cele said those who died are between the ages of 13 and 17.

Post-mortem examinations are due to be carried out to establish the cause of death. Mr Cele broke down in tears after leaving a morgue where the bodies were being kept. “It’s a terrible scene,” he told reporters.

“They are pretty young. When you are told they are 13 years, 14 years and you go there and you see them. It breaks [you].”

Local media outlet Daily Dispatch reported seeing “bodies lying bizarrely as if they collapsed to the floor suddenly while dancing or in the middle of a conversation, some seemingly in the social circles they were engaging with. Other bodies are slumped across chairs and lying over tables.”

Angry parents gathered outside the Tavern yesterday demanding to see their children.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa sent his condolences to the families of the victims.

“While the President awaits more information on the incident, his thoughts are with the families who have lost children as well as families who are awaiting confirmation of how their children may have been affected,” a statement from the presidency said.  

The exact circumstances of the incident still remain unclear.

Siyanda Manana, a spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial health department, told Reuters: “We are going to immediately be embarking on autopsies so we can know the probable cause of death. We are talking 22 bodies right now.”

Some social media users shared footage of inside the Tavern before the incident and suggested that the venue was overcrowded.

The club’s owner, Siyakhangela Ndevu, told eNCA he was called to the scene early on Sunday morning and was “still uncertain about what really happened”.

According to local reports, people had gone to the tavern to celebrate the end of school exams.

The legal minimum drinking age in South Africa is 18.