Eight boys have died and three are in hospital after botched circumcisions in the South African province of Mpumalanga

The teenagers were at an initiation school in the town of Kwamhlanga. One of the initiates died in hospital and the seven others were found by health officials dead at the school. Circumcision is a traditional rite of passage for many boys in South Africa, where authorities have long campaigned to stop botched initiation ceremonies. Although it is unusual for so many boys to die at the same time, deaths from circumcisions are occasionally reported in South Africa, where blunt, unsterilised knives are sometimes used.