Near Orenburg exploded cars with ammunition. The authorities responded to panic rumors
At the railway station Donguz of the Orenburg region in the area of the military ground, where obsolete shells are being utilized, three powerful explosions thundered on Tuesday. Over the past month and a half this is the fourth such case. It is reported about four wounded men delivered with injuries to the hospital. In the information management EMERCOM of the RF RIA "News"said that the cause of the explosions of ammunition was a fire at the site for their loading. The authorities offered to evacuate the residents of two villages near the landfill. After the emergency, frightening rumors about a huge number of victims started, but they were refuted by the regional government.
As ITAR-TASS was told at the Ministry of Defense, a spontaneous explosion of ammunition occurred today at 09: 05 Moscow time when they were unloaded at the test site. The life of the ammunition passed, and the shells were to be disposed of, explained in the Office of the press service.
The vice-governor of the Orenburg region, Dmitry Kulagin, who arrived at the scene, told Interfax that the shells were brought to the landfill by train, after which the vehicles sent the ammunition to the disposal sites. "The explosion occurred in one of these trains, which arrived at the Donguz proving ground," the official said.
According to the Ministry of Defense, after the first explosion, personnel were promptly removed to a safe distance. Total explosions thundered in three railway cars, a strong fire broke out. The head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation Gennady Onishchenko, said on Tuesday that, despite the vast burning area, there is no threat of chemical pollution in the region.
The regional government later clarified that, according to unspecified data, the explosions thundered not in the cars, but on armory warehouses. This was stated by the press secretary of the governor of Yuri Berg, Igor Dmitrachkov.
The press service of the Privolzhsky regional center of the IA Regnum reported that the Leader rescue center, robototechnics, aircraft Be-200, MI-26, MI-8, the operational group of rescuers, as well as psychologists are preparing for the Donguz district.
According to the instructions of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, a commission of the Ministry of Defense headed by the commander of the troops of the Central Military District Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov flew to Orenburg.
The military-investigative department for the Orenburg garrison on the fact of an explosion of shells at the Donguz test site opened a criminal case under part 1 of article 349 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules for handling weapons and objects that pose an increased danger to others).
Four hospitalized. The government denied
Four wounded were hospitalized from the site of the explosions in the central regional hospital of the Orenburg district, Interfax was told at the reception of the medical institution. The interlocutor of the agency could not tell in what condition the victims are. In the emergency room of the hospital refused to provide information about the injured received.
In the central hospital, the agency was informed that ambulance teams were sent to the landfill area, and regional hospitals are preparing to receive victims.
At the same time, the regional government insists that there are no victims and injured. This was announced at an emergency meeting of the regional emergency commission, Interfax press secretary secretary Igor Dmitrachkov told Interfax.
Were terrible rumors about the missing military and a large number of victims
Meanwhile, local residents are confident that there will be a lot of victims. As the resident of Donguz Valentina Aramova told the local Internet edition of 56 Media, the explosions were so strong that the windows were fluttering in the houses, the ceilings of residential buildings collapsed. On the streets, trees fell on people and cars, in the bazaar all the tents "formed like card houses."
"Children and schools are evacuated from schools and gardens, as well as workers from local organizations. Everyone is asked to leave the village and go far into the steppe. The whole Donguz covered black smoke. The full feeling of the war started! A few minutes ago you could hear the signals of fire engines and ambulance, who quickly went to the scene of the explosion, "- said the woman.
"Most likely, there are casualties at the scene of the incident, perhaps considerable ones ... Such strong explosions can really pass without victims," she believes.
Nikita Prokhorov, head of the information service of the Eurasia SEC Nikita Prokhorov, said in an interview with the radio station Kommersant FM that bloggers report the seriousness of the situation in Donguz. According to eyewitnesses, “glasses are breaking, everything is shaking around, people are falling off the chairs”. In particular, the Orenburg blogger Andrei wrote in his microblog on Twitter. “It shook so badly, I was already shaky in a bar stool,” he said, explaining that he was at home during the explosion.
The edition of "56 media" wrote that the fate of 200 military, caught up in the epicenter of the explosion, is allegedly unknown. It was reported that rescuers could not get close to the site of the first explosions, and there was no connection with the military unit.
However, the vice-governor of the Orenburg region Dmitry Kulagin denied this information. According to him, the military assured the regional administration that all the servicemen had been withdrawn from the range and there were no casualties among them.
Residents of two villages offered to evacuate
Representatives of the authorities organized the evacuation of residents of two villages located in the immediate vicinity of the Donguz railway station, where the explosions occurred, the Interfax was told at the Emergencies Ministry. It was proposed to evacuate to residents of the village of Pervomaisky and the village of Experimental, located at a distance of 10 km from the place of emergency.
According to the ministry, 8 lives in the village of Pervomaysky, thousand people, in the Experimental village - 2 thousand. The vice-governor Dmitry Kulagin clarified that there is no planned evacuation for everyone, but people who want to leave will be provided with transport.
A source in the power structures of the region, in turn, reported that the rescuers of the Emergency Ministry partially evacuated the population of Donguz station. According to the agency interlocutor, in some houses located near the station, the windows are damaged. Meanwhile, Lieutenant-Governor Kulagin had previously told Interfax that there was no visible destruction in the Donguz, namely, "cracks in the walls of houses, broken glass, and the like."
At a meeting in Orenburg on Tuesday afternoon, it was stated that only three residential buildings in the village of Pervomaiskoye were damaged, glass was broken in many houses.
Suspended rail service
After the explosions, the authorities also blocked the road to Sol-Iletsk, and OAO Russian Railways temporarily suspended the movement of trains in the Orenburg-Iletsk section, RBC reports.
Freight traffic is interrupted on the Orenburg-Iletsk section, the N5 Tashkent-Moscow train is suspended. However, it is reported that damage to the railway infrastructure is missing.
The Donguz military range is located in 20 km from the Donguz station of the South Ural Railway.
Glass was shaking in Orenburg, strong claps were heard
From the explosions near Orenburg, in the regional center, the glass rattled and two strong claps could be heard, Interfax reports. They were so strong that the residents paid attention to them, although there is a training ground not far from the city, and the locals got used to the sounds of explosions for a long time.
Vice-Governor Dmitry Kalugin, in turn, noted that the explosions that had been thundered were so strong that in Orenburg "chandeliers swayed, the ground fluctuated." At the same time, there is no destruction in the regional center, he stressed.
Immediately, white smoke rose into the sky. The authorities did not make any reports on the incident. The Donguz polygon is located about 50 km from Orenburg. The Emergencies Ministry stressed that there is no danger for Orenburg. The first video of the effects of explosions at the site, shot by local residents, has already appeared on the Web.
Since the end of August, three more emergencies occurred at the site
Recall the previous state of emergency at the Donguz polygon was reported two weeks ago. Then two conscripts were injured as a result of an explosion during the work on the disposal of ammunition. It was reported that the health of one soldier does not cause concern, the second - in serious condition.
4 September also hit two conscript soldiers. The press service of the governor and the regional government then reported that the incident was not directly related to the ammunition disposal process. The servicemen were blown up while laying a trench, where a zinc box with cartridges was at a shallow depth. One soldier was slightly injured, the second was contused.
30 August, an explosion occurred at the site during the destruction of ammunition, two soldiers-conscripts Arthur Kuvandykov and Andrey Demyanyuk were injured. With fragmental wounds, they were taken to a branch of the district military hospital of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
A week before, the portal of the government of the Orenburg region reported that the disposal of unusable ammunition at the military sites of the region is under constant control by the governor Yuri Berg and the government of the region. The commander of the Central Military District, Colonel-General Vladimir Chirkin, was repeatedly asked to take measures to reduce the negative impact of blasting operations.
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