An explosion of undetermined origin on Sunday August 14 left at least three dead and around forty injured in a commercial area of Yerevan, the capital, the Armenian authorities announced.
“According to preliminary data, an explosion occurred which started a fire”, the Emergencies Ministry said in a statement. In addition to the provisional assessment, the ministry published the names of twenty-five people whose relatives were without news, believing that they could be trapped in the rubble of a building that collapsed.
The explosion, whose origin remains undetermined, occurred in the early afternoon at the Surmalu wholesale market, a very busy place on Sundays.
Videos and photos circulating on social media show a thick column of black smoke rising into the sky. On a video, we can hear several explosions in succession, like the crackling of fireworks. 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.
Ten survivors pulled from the ruins
The explosion caused the collapse of a building and rescuers cleared the rubble with diggers to try to find survivors, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse.
According to the Ministry of Emergencies, some 200 firefighters and rescuers were deployed to the scene of the explosion, as well as several trucks and construction machinery. Ten survivors were extricated from the ruins by rescuers, as well as a body, the ministry said. Many volunteers were also present, struggling to move piles of concrete blocks and twisted metal bars by hand.
A small country in the Caucasus with around three million inhabitants, Armenia is going through a difficult period. since a 2020 war against Azerbaijan neighbor which ended in a heavy defeat and a major political crisis.