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Nine dead, 243 injured after massive series of blasts at Albanian army depot

Rescuers found four more bodies yesterday at the site of a massive series of explosions over 14 hours at an Albanian army depot, raising the death toll to nine.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said ten workers were still missing after the blasts, which started on Saturday and injured 243 people, including many children.

During a visit to a Tirana hospital treating many of the blast victims, Berisha said at least two of the injured were in serious condition. He said five people were sent yesterday for treatment to Greece and four others to Italy.

Berisha said the blasts were accidentally triggered during work to destroy excess ammunition at Gerdec village, about 10km north of the capital. The explosions started on Saturday and continued until early yesterday -- severely hampering rescue efforts.

The first blast was heard as far away as the Macedonian capital Skopje, 190km away, and prompted a brief suspension of flights at Tirana's nearby international airport, which was slightly damaged. Authorities evacuated 4,000 people from three villages and the surrounding area using armored personnel carriers.

Hundreds of troops and police cordoned off the still-smoking depot yesterday and army engineers were preparing to enter the heart of the blasts.

Out of the 243 people registered as injured, more than 130 remained hospitalized in Albania yesterday.

Five, including two girls aged three and seven, were being treated in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki with severe burn and blast injuries.

The three-year-old was in intensive care. Hospital officials said she was caught by the blast while playing outside her house in Gerdec, a few hundred meters from the site of the explosion.

The destruction of ammunition at the dump was being carried out by an Albanian company that had been subcontracted by Southern Ammunition Co of Loris, South Carolina, Berisha said.

In the past year, about 6,000 tonnes to 7,000 tonnes of ammunition were destroyed.

Footage from Albanian television showed a massive ball of fire shooting up from the site, while shrapnel and shell fragments rained down on homes and vehicles. Houses more than 2 kilometers away were damaged by the blast, which caused a massive crater at the depot.

The explosion also damaged an electricity transmission point, leaving the area without power, authorities said.

In Kosovo, hundreds of people lined up at a Pristina hospital to give blood, officials said.

Macedonia sent in blood yesterday, while Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki flew to Tirana to offer assistance.
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