2023-08-10 09:52:00
At least 56 injured after explosion at an industrial plant in the Moscow region; Russia opens an investigation into the event
Smoke rises from the Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant in the city of Sergiev Posad, Moscow. (Photo: Sergiev Posad Telegram Channel Administration/AP)
At least 56 people were injured in a burst occurred this Wednesday at an industrial plant in the city of Sergiev Posad, located northeast of Moscow, reported the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
“In total, 56 people asked for medical help. Thirty are now in the hospital, six of them in intensive care,” the governor said in a Telegram post. “Another 26 people went to the emergency room, but they did not need hospitalization; after the examination, the doctors let them go home.”
Rescue teams are still working on the site of the explosion, as there could be more people under the rubble. “Rescue teams will need about 12 hours to remove the rubble. It is possible that there are still people, three have already been removed; the doctors assess their condition as serious,” the official added.
Russian state media reported early this Wednesday, citing local authorities, that the source of the detonation was a pyrotechnic warehouse rented by a third company at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant facilities, which manufactures systems opticians for the Russian army. The cause of the explosion is a violation of technological processes, they added.
A representative of the Russian Investigative Committee told the TASS news agency that the hypotheses of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack on the plant have not been confirmed. Authorities are determining the official cause of the explosion.
“In the urban district of Sergiev Posad a criminal case was opened on the fact of an incident at one of the factories, as a result of which people were injured,” the Investigative Committee stated.
A representative of the Investigative Committee told the TASS news agency that suggestions of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attack on the plant have not been confirmed. Authorities are determining the true cause of the explosion.
“As for the explosion, it was very powerful. And now the operational services are busy, investigating. I can’t comment on what it was, because journalists traditionally ask the question: ‘was it a hit from above or an explosion from inside.’ This is done by specialists,” Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov told RIA Novosti in an interview.
“One thing is clear: that the explosion was powerful and occurred in the fireworks workshop,” he added.
The explosion was caught on security cameras and car cameras in the small town. A video shared on social media shows a huge column of smoke in the shape of a mushroom rising above the plant.
An eyewitness named Nikolai said in an interview with MASH, an independent Russian media blog present at the scene, that there used to be a munitions factory on the site before it “was sold and turned into a pyrotechnics factory.”
“The company went bankrupt; it is not clear who worked there and what they did. It is also not clear what caused the explosion,” Nikolai said.
The eyewitness said that “the bang was very loud and the immediate color of the explosion was orange before turning into gray smoke. Normally when a firework goes off you smell sulfur, but there was no smell of sulfur at all. There were no detonations.” , just a big bang.”
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