(Yerevan) An explosion of undetermined origin on Sunday killed at least three people and injured dozens in a commercial area in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, announced the authorities of this Caucasian country.
Updated yesterday at 3:49 p.m.
“According to preliminary data, an explosion occurred which started a fire,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement, reporting three deaths and around 40 people still hospitalized.
The ministry also released the names of 25 people whose relatives were unaccounted for, believing they could be trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building.
The origin of the explosion, which occurred in the early afternoon at the Surmalu wholesale market, was not immediately known. This place is traditionally very busy on Sundays.
Some media, quoting witnesses, reported that the explosion occurred in a place where fireworks were stored, but the authorities had not yet made a statement about it.
Videos and photos circulating on social media showed a thick column of black smoke rising into the sky. On a video, we could hear several detonations in succession, like a crackling.
The explosion caused the collapse of a building and rescuers cleared the rubble with diggers to try to find survivors, noted an AFP journalist.
Ten survivors were extricated from the ruins by the rescuers, as well as a body, indicated the ministry for the emergency situations.
Many volunteers were also present, struggling to move piles of concrete blocks and twisted metal bars by hand.
Not far away, firefighters equipped with water hoses, some perched on ladders, abundantly sprinkled the smoking ruins of a building with a facade blackened by flames.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, some 200 firefighters and rescue workers were deployed to the scene of the explosion, as well as several trucks and construction machinery.
fake bomb threat
This explosion mourns a country that is going through a difficult period.
A small Caucasian country of about three million inhabitants, Armenia is still struggling to recover from a war that pitted it in 2020 against neighboring Azerbaijan, which ended in a heavy defeat and a major political crisis.
In a sign of nervousness, shortly after the explosion in the Surmalu market, the Yerevan metro was evacuated due to a bomb threat, authorities said, adding that no explosive device had finally been found.
The embassy of Russia, a neighboring country of Armenia, has also indicated that it is seeking to establish whether Russians were among the victims.
“We express our sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in the explosion,” she said in a statement.