Blast at Fuel Depot in Nagorno-Karabakh Prompts Fears of Many Casualties
An unspecified number of people were wounded on Monday in a fuel depot explosion in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to Armenian separatist authorities.
It could not immediately be determined how many were injured, or whether there were any fatalities. But Armenian separatist officials said “there are victims and wounded.”
“A strong explosion occurred in the gasoline warehouse near the Stepanakert-Askera highway,” the authorities said in a statement. “At the moment, rescue and medical operative groups are working on the spot.”
The Associated Press reported that several dozen people were injured in the blast, which it said happened at a gas station just outside Stepanakert, the capital of the breakaway region. The A.P. said that people had been lining up at the gas station to refuel their cars as they were fleeing to Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent said that some of the wounded were treated by their medics and that some of the most severely injured were transferred to their hospital.
