At least five workers were killed in a blast at an explosives plant in Russia’s Ryazan region southeast of Moscow, emergency officials said Friday.
According to the state-run news agency RIA Novosti, a gunpowder workshop at the Elastic synthetic fiber plant caught fire and triggered explosions.
The Ryazan region’s crisis response group initially said three people were killed, then updated the death toll to four.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry placed the death toll at five.
Both agencies said the total number of wounded was still being determined.
Investigators said they were carrying out a preliminary probe into the fire in the village of Lesnoy, located 65 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of the city of Ryazan and 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Moscow.
Anonymous emergency sources told RIA Novosti the fire and explosion may have been caused by safety violations.
It is the second fatal explosion at the Elastic factory since October 2021, when 17 people were killed in a workshop operated by explosives producer Razryad.
Elastic belongs to the state defense conglomerate Rostec, which brings together a range of companies supplying industrial or high-tech products to the civilian and military sectors.
Local media said the factory went bankrupt in 2015 and that its workshops were used by other explosives makers.
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