Two days after the huge explosion at a petrol station in the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan killed 35 people, 22 bodies have yet to be identified, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Investigators believe the blast in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala was sparked by a fire in a car workshop opposite the petrol station, where fertilizer was also stored.
Two men have been questioned by investigators, one of whom confirmed the storage of the ammonium nitrate, the authorities said.
The State Investigation Committee is treating the accident as a violation of safety measures resulting in death.
Local media said 84 people were injured, some of them seriously.
The explosion in Makhachkala damaged around 400 houses in the surrounding area, according to Dagestan’s Head of Administration, Sergei Melikov.
Melikov said on Telegram that the clean up effort was under way.
Back in 2020, ammonium nitrate stored without safety precautions caused another massive explosion in the port of Beirut.
More than 200 people were killed and around 6,000 others injured, while large parts of the port and nearby residential areas were destroyed. (dpa/NAN)
