The blasts destroyed a fireworks warehouse at a shopping mall in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported, killing three others and injuring more than 60.
Video footage showed gray smoke rising over a building and other people fleeing the area.
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Rescuers searched for survivors through twisted steel and debris as clouds of dust and smoke wafted through the air. Bystanders helped patients move to safe areas.
News firm Interfax quoted Armenia’s Emergencies Ministry as saying the body of a third victim had been found. Authorities had reported two deaths in the past.
Emergency Minister Armen Pambukhchyan, quoted by the Sputnik Armenia news agency, said the chimney had died out but that strong winds remained a threat. He said rescue groups would continue to search for survivors overnight.
The Emergencies Ministry said the initial investigation showed that two gigantic explosions components of a building that housed fireworks fell.
Armenia’s fitness ministry said another 61 people were injured, adding that several were treated at the hospital.
It is not known what caused the explosion of the fireworks. (Reuters report; Edited by Ron Popeski, Alison Williams, David Goodman, Raissa Kasolowsky and Daniel Wallis)
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