UPDATE 2 - Blasts at Ammunition Depot Rock Bulgarian Capital Sofia, Airport Closed

(adds details, corrects name)

SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 3 (SeeNews) - Blasts at an ammunition utilisation depot rocked the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Thursday morning, officials said.

"Today, July 3, four ammunition utilisation warehouses exploded. The guards at the site were withdrawn immediately and the area was sealed off," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

In another statement the Defence Ministry said the name of the village where the blasts occurred was Chelopechene, not Chelopech as it said earlier.
 
The depot, located near Chelopechene some 10 kilometres north of Sofia, was housing artillery shells slated for decomissioning, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Zlatan Stoikov told state-run radio broadcaster BNR.

"There is no danger of air pollutioning by warfare gases," the Defence Ministry added. It also said no rise in radiation levels was detected at the site.

"We take measures to evacuate the people around, as blasts can continue," Stoikov said.

"No people were injured", Defence Minister Nikolay Tsonev said. It was not immediately clear what has caused the blasts that occurred shortly after 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

Sofia airport, located around five kilometres from the blast site, was closed for all flights from 0715 local time, BNR quoted the airport's executive director Plamen Stranchev as saying. The ban continue until the safety of flights is secured, he added. All flights will be redirected to Plovdiv, 130 kilometres southeast of Sofia.

The Transport Minitry reported shattered windows at a number of airport buildings.

The warehouses store around 20 tonnes of the TNT explosive that could damage an area of up to eight kilometres in diameter, Darik radio quoted Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Pavlin Dimitrov as saying.

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