Thousands evacuated after Russia arms depot blasts

More than 20,000 people were evacuated and two died of heart attacks when a fire at a munitions depot in central Russia triggered a succession of explosions and sent a fireball blazing into the sky yesterday

Officials battled through the night to put out a huge blaze at a military depot storing shells and rockets in the Volga region of Udmurtia as it hurled shrapnel into the air and sent people running for their life.

“Anything that could have exploded, did,” emergencies ministry spokesman Mikhail Turkov said.

The fire broke out at the depot located near the village of Pugachyovo near the city of Izhevsk just before midnight, the emergency ministry said.

Nearly 60 people sought medical help and 25 people were hospitalised, many of them elderly, officials said, adding one man had his finger amputated as a result of the accident.

Two elderly people - a woman and a man - died of heart attacks, said Elena Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the regional health ministry in Udmurtia, declining however, to link the deaths to the fire or the explosions themselves.

More than 500 personnel were battling the blaze, along with four planes, three helicopters and robotic equipment, officials said, adding more than 40 tonnes of water have been dumped over the blaze as of 0900 GMT.

By that time authorities said they had the fire under control and many people were beginning to return home as doctors were helping local residents who sustained emotional trauma.

“I thought it was thunder. No, looks like it is not thunder. I then hear the base is going up in the air,” local villager Galina Morozova said in televised remarks, adding the force of the blast broke windows.