Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has revealed that the cumulative death toll which had resulted from an explosion which had occurred at a bustling market in the Armenian capital, Yerevan has risen to six on Monday as serious search operations has been put in place for people believed trapped under rubble.
It has been reported that another 61 people had been injured while 15 were missing after Sunday’s blast that led to the collapse of a building at the Surmalu wholesale market, Armenia’s Emergency Situations Minister Armen Pambukhchyan said.
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Rescue operations were continuing “very carefully” with people still believed to be trapped beneath the debris, he added.
Pambukhchyan told reporters that video footage of the incident showed that “there can be no talk of a terrorist attack” as the fire started before the explosion.
He said the fire spread to “pyro materials”. Local media had earlier said the explosion went off at a place that stored fireworks.
The minister had also noted that smoke and small fire could persist for several more days with lots of plastic smouldering at the scene.
Photos and videos posted on social media after the blast showed a thick column of black smoke over the market and what appeared to be a series of detonations can be heard. Prosecutors meanwhile launched a probe into violations “on stocking inflammable goods”, breaches in fire safety standards and the death of people “due to negligence”.
In another report, no fewer than 41 people have been confirmed dead and 14 others injured following a fire that broke out at a church in the city of Giza, near Cairo, Egypt’s Coptic Church disclosed on Sunday, citing the health ministry.
The health ministry in Egypt had earlier disclosed that ‘several’ people were killed in the fire at the Abu Sifin Coptic church in the Imbaba neighbourhood yesterday and that ambulances transferred at least 55 injured people to local hospitals.
According to a police statement which was sighted by Africa Daily News, New York on Monday, an initial investigation pointed to an electrical short-circuit.
Two security sources told Reuters news agency an electrical fire broke out as 5,000 worshippers gathered for mass, causing a stampede.