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Russian arms depot damaged by fire

04 June 2011 01:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. One person was missing and 57 injured in explosions and a fire at an artillery arsenal in Russia’s Volga region, the Emergency Situations Ministry said, APA reports quoting upi.com web-page.
"As of now, 57 people have sought medical assistance, 25 were hospitalized with two of them already discharged," a ministry spokesman said in an RIA Novosti report Friday.
The fire has been brought under control, the ministry official said, but not before more than 28,000 people were initially evacuated from nearby residential areas.
Witnesses said fragments of exploded artillery shells were found nearly two miles from the blast site.
"These sounds [of explosions] woke us up and we did not understand anything â€¦ it was very scary," said Irina, a resident of the nearby town of Agryza. "No one had time to grab their documents, money or valuables."
As many as 10,000 railway cars storing munitions there were in danger of exploding, officials said.
It is the second major accident involving munitions explosions at a Russian army base in a week. Thursday, a military arsenal in the republic of Bashkortostan, which borders Udmurtia, was rocked by a series of explosions as artillery shells detonated.