"The missiles did not explode" - Two dead, 52 injured as Russian arms depot continues to explode

From Will at The Other News:

Two people have died and at least 52 have been injured in ongoing explosions at an artillery arsenal in Russia's Volga region Republic of Udmurtia, a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said."As of now, 52 people turned for medical assistance, 25 were hospitalized with two of them already discharged," the spokesman said.

The republic's health minister, Vladimir Muzlov, said earlier two elderly people died from heart attacks caused by stress from the explosions.

The Defense Ministry has reported one person as missing in the incident, but did not say whether the individual was a civilian or a military serviceman.At around 11:10 p.m. Moscow time [19:10 GMT] on Thursday shells began to explode in an artillery depot near the village of Pugachevo in Udmurtia.  

The facility belongs to the Defense Ministry's missile and artillery directorate and is tasked mainly with munitions disposal.

Currently, the intensity of explosions has dropped to a third of the initial level, but military officials are still unable to say when the series of explosions will stop, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. 

A group of seven aircraft from the Emergencies Ministry has arrived at the scene from Moscow to deal with the blaze and explosions, including two planes with special equipment, two firefighting planes and three helicopters.

That is in addition to the previously deployed 200 personnel, 30 firefighting units and three firefighting trains. A fourth train is to arrive from the neighboring republic of Tatarstan soon.

According to the Russian presidential press service, some 13,500 people were evacuated from the nearby residential areas, while the regional emergencies department says 28,000 people were evacuated.A senior Russian military official has confirmed that artillery rockets are stored at the arsenal, but added that there is no threat of them exploding. 

"The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls," Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov said.

A police source said earlier that rockets for Grad multiple rocket launcher systems started to explode in underground storage facilities on Friday morning.Eyewitnesses said fragments of the detonated shells were spotted up to two kilometers (1.6 miles) from the blast site.Irina, a resident of the nearby town of Agryza, said the evacuation was well organized and began at around midnight with buses taking people away.

"These sounds [of explosions] woke us up and we did not understand anything... it was very scary.

No one had time to grab their documents, money or valuables," Irina said adding that she, her son, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren fled the town by car. 

The blast-hit facility stores from 5,000 to 10,000 railway carriages with various ammunition. It is believed 18 storage facilities are on fire.

The accident forced the Emergencies Ministry to temporarily close the Yelabuga-Izhevsk zone of the M7 federal highway, connecting Moscow and Ufa, the capital of the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. The nearby railway link was also closed.

The incident is the second major accident involving munitions explosions at a Russian army base in a week. Last Thursday, a military arsenal in the republic of Bashkortostan, which borders Udmurtia, was rocked by a series of explosions as artillery ammunition exploded, causing the evacuation of nearby residents and leaving 160 homeless. No-one died in that incident. 

"The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls,".

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