Residents were evacuated on Tuesday after a train carrying munitions to a disposal site exploded at the Donguz rail station in Russia’s Orenburg region, the local Emergencies Ministry said.
“Donguz has been partially evacuated, and road traffic on the Sol-Lipetsk highway has been stopped,” an Emergencies Ministry source said.
The alarm was sounded at 10:57 a.m. Moscow time, after a fire broke out on a train carrying ammunition at the station, 25 miles (40 km) from Orenburg, followed by three explosions. There are no reports of casualties so far, the Emergencies Ministry said.
Earlier, another source said the nearby settlement of Pervomaisky had also been evacuated, but this could not be confirmed.
Army sappers are working at the site to contain the incident, the local Interior Ministry said.
“Sappers are currently inspecting the nearby area,” the local Interior Ministry said.
The incident is the latest in a series of blasts involving munitions disposal sites and firing ranges in Russia in the last few years.
Three servicemen were injured in a blast on a military range in Russia’s Far East Khabarovsk Territory on May 30.
On May 18, another person was injured in an ammunition depot fire in the nearby Primorsk Territory.
Last June, huge explosions shook an ammunition depot in Russia’s Urals republic of Udmurtia, leaving 95 people injured.