6 killed, 18 injured in explosion at Pulgaon Army depot in Maharashtra’s Wardha

Nagpur: At least 6 people were killed and 18 injured in a massive explosion at Pulgaon-based Central Ammunition Depot (CAD) in Wardha district, around 120 kms from Nagpur on Tuesday morning.

PRO Nagpur has confirmed that the tragedy occurred when the employees of the depot were disposing unused explosives in a military firing range area of Pulgaon.

“Today morning at 7.10 pm while carrying out the demolition of old explosives by the staff of ordnance factory Khamaria, Jabalpur there was an accident. The demolition was being carried out in the demolition land under the jurisdiction of central arms depot, Pulgaon. While carrying out the demolition there was an accident (sic) ,” said BBPande, PRONagpur.

“The officials of ordnance factory Khamaria, Jabalpur and of ordnance factory Chandrapur are rushing to the spot,” he added.

This is the second major blast in the depot in the last two years. In May 2016, 13 persons were killed in a major fire in the depot while disposing the explosives.

According to reports ,out of the six persons killed in the deadly fire-blast at the CAD, Pulgaon, two bodies were charred beyond recognition. The deceased are yet to be identified.

Pulgaon in Wardha houses the largest weapons stockpile in the country. The officials of the ordnance factory Khamaria, Jabalpur and of the ordance factory Chandrapur have rushed to the spot

These stocks include assorted weaponry including bombs, grenades, shells, rifles and other explosives. All the ordnance produced in different factories arrives at this facility before it is sent out to various forward bases.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)