Six hurt in blasts at Azerbaijan weapons depot

Six people were injured Sunday when a fire at a military base in Azerbaijan set off explosions of weapons at a storage depot, officials in the Caucasus nation said.

Residents were evacuated from two villages Gilezi and Shitalchai nearest to the base, about 70 kilometres north of capital Baku, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said there was a fire at the base “which caused the explosions,” without giving details of damages or cause of the fire.

A spokeswoman of the health ministry, Liya Bairamova, told AFP that six people were injured in the fire and blasts, though without clarifying if they were soldiers or civilians.

Earlier emergencies authorities said that first response vehicles could not get close to the base because of ongoing explosions.

A major road from Baku north to the city of Guba and the Russian border was closed due to the incident.