Watch: South African president visits site of Johannesburg fire which killed more than 70

Watch as Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, is expected to visit the site of the Johannesburg fire that killed more than 70 people on Thursday 31 August.

An emergency services spokesperson said another 52 people were injured in the fire that broke out at about 1am.

Some of the people living in a maze of shacks and other makeshift structures inside the building threw themselves out of windows in an attempt to escape the blaze.

Officials say that 12 children are among the dead, including a one-year-old baby.

Reports suggest as many as 200 people lived in the building, which was an “informal settlement” housing homeless people while they looked for permanent accommodation.

Some of the victims may have been renting rooms in the building from criminal gangs, officials claim.

Johannesburg’s mayor Kabelo Gwamanda extended his condolences to the families of those who died on Thursday, and said that “we share the pain of those that have suffered grave injury”.