(in Siberia)
A military ammunition depot explodes near the city of Achinsk in eastern Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region © AP
https://www.ft.com/content/30a2048c-b9ca-11e9-8a88-aa6628ac896c
Two people have been killed and six more injured after a rocket engine explosion at a military base in Russia, the country’s defence ministry said on Thursday.
The local port administration banned all shipping traffic in the area for a month, while the region’s governor convened an emergency meeting, but released a statement that said: “The situation is under control.”
The blast at a military testing range in the Arkhangelsk region in north-west Russia comes just three days after an explosion at an artillery depot in Siberia injured a dozen people and forced mass evacuations. In July, 14 people died after a fire broke out on a top-secret deep sea submersible during exercises in the Barents Sea.
“Two specialists have died of their injuries,” the ministry said of the Arkhangelsk explosion. “Six representatives of the defence ministry . . . have sustained various injuries as a result of the accident.”
“There were no emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, the radiation background is normal,” the ministry added.
Russian news agencies said the explosion happened near the village of Nyonoksa near the port city of Severodvinsk, which houses a naval base. The military site at Nyonoksa has been used to test sea-based ballistic missiles, a local news site reported, citing Vyacheslav Popov, the former head of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
Radiation “briefly increased” by 11:50am but began to decline over the next half-hour and was at normal background levels by 2pm, said Valentin Magomedov, head of the Severodvinsk civil defence department.
It was not immediately clear how the accident happened. Russian news agency Interfax claimed the explosion happened during weapons testing, while Tass said a fire had broken out on one of the Northern Fleet’s vessels. Local health authorities said there were no civilian casualties.
A military ammunition depot explodes near the city of Achinsk in eastern Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region © AP
https://www.ft.com/content/30a2048c-b9ca-11e9-8a88-aa6628ac896c
Two people have been killed and six more injured after a rocket engine explosion at a military base in Russia, the country’s defence ministry said on Thursday.
The local port administration banned all shipping traffic in the area for a month, while the region’s governor convened an emergency meeting, but released a statement that said: “The situation is under control.”
The blast at a military testing range in the Arkhangelsk region in north-west Russia comes just three days after an explosion at an artillery depot in Siberia injured a dozen people and forced mass evacuations. In July, 14 people died after a fire broke out on a top-secret deep sea submersible during exercises in the Barents Sea.
“Two specialists have died of their injuries,” the ministry said of the Arkhangelsk explosion. “Six representatives of the defence ministry . . . have sustained various injuries as a result of the accident.”
“There were no emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere, the radiation background is normal,” the ministry added.
Russian news agencies said the explosion happened near the village of Nyonoksa near the port city of Severodvinsk, which houses a naval base. The military site at Nyonoksa has been used to test sea-based ballistic missiles, a local news site reported, citing Vyacheslav Popov, the former head of Russia’s Northern Fleet.
Radiation “briefly increased” by 11:50am but began to decline over the next half-hour and was at normal background levels by 2pm, said Valentin Magomedov, head of the Severodvinsk civil defence department.
It was not immediately clear how the accident happened. Russian news agency Interfax claimed the explosion happened during weapons testing, while Tass said a fire had broken out on one of the Northern Fleet’s vessels. Local health authorities said there were no civilian casualties.
