About 6,500 residents were evacuated from the vicinity of a Russian ammunition depot that went into flames after multiple explosions late on Tuesday night, Russian media reported.
The explosions and resultant fire that ripped through the ammunition testing facility near the city of Chapaevsk, in Russia's Samara Region, sent shrapnel flying over a kilometer from the site, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Wednesday that the depot housed "some 18 million shells" of various calibers, and nearly 6,000 of them were 122-mm artillery shells.
The blasts at the depot stopped by midday on Wednesday (Moscow time). A total of 48 people have sought medical help, of whom 11 have been hospitalized, the Emergencies Ministry said, adding that there was no threat to the population from any chemicals.
President Vladimir Putin urged regional authorities and Ministers to "take measures to provide aid" to those affected by the explosions.
More than 1,500 personnel and over 240 units of machinery and equipment, including four drones, eight fire-fighting helicopters and two fire-fighting trains, were deployed to contain the fire and explosions, the Ministry said.
The incident was the latest in a series of fires and explosions at Russian munition storage and disposal sites in the past two years.
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