Four workers died and four were injured in an explosion and fire at a factory in Uzbekistan that supplies explosives to mining enterprises in Central Asia, emergency officials said on Saturday. The government said it was an accident.
The blast at the Shams Ltd. facility happened in a workshop at 9:40 a.m. on Saturday in the Kogon district of the Bukhara region, and the fire was extinguished by 10:27 a.m., the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
Four out of the 30 workers who were in the warehouse died, the ministry said.
“Four employees who received minor injuries were taken to the hospital; two of them received outpatient medical care and were allowed to return home,” it said.
The government has established a commission to investigate the accident and provide urgent help to the victims.
The Shams company, which has been operating since 2019, specializes in supplying explosives used to develop new deposits for mining operations in Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia.
