MOSCOW: At least 38 people were injured in a blast at a major explosives plant in central Russia on Saturday, local news agencies reported, citing emergency services.
The blast took place at the “Kristall” factory in Dzerzhinsk about 400 kilometres east of Moscow, in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Earlier reports said 19 people were injured in the accident and two were missing. “Thirty eight people are injured, four of them are in a serious condition,” a spokesman for local emergency services told the TASS news agency.
He said 25 are in a state of “medium” severity while nine others had “light” injuries.
Nobody was killed in the blast, the source told TASS.
Earlier health ministry officials told news agencies that the wounded had “shrapnel wounds of mild and moderate severity” and that they were receiving medical assistance.
The deputy governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Dmitry Krasnov, told Russian state television that “two people are missing.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation into potential violations of industrial safety at the plant. (AFP)
