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Investigators sift through smouldering rubble of Afghan blast
Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Aug 10: Investigators were sifting through the rubble today of a warehouse in Afghanistan destroyed in a massive explosion which left some 30 people dead, officials said.
General Haji Musa, a local commander, told a news agency at the scene of yesterday's blast that a total of 30 people were now known to have died and some 90 were injured.
A total of 54 people were still being treated in the main hospital in this eastern city while dozens more were recovering at home.
Musa also insisted that the explosion was "no accident".
"An accident like this cannot happen," he said. "Private cars were not allowed to enter this compound, so we believe the explosives must have been placed inside a car (already in the compound)."
But a local police chief said the director of the Afghan
Construction and Logistics Unit (ACUL) which operated the
warehouse had admitted that a large quantity of explosives had
been stored at the depot for engineering work.
Lieutenant General Abdul Saffa Mohammad, deputy director
for security of Nangarhar province of which Jalalabad is the
capital, said that an ACLU director who had been detained
overnight for questioning had told his interrogators that
explosives used to clear boulders were stored in the depot.
"It is too early to say if there was a lack of safety
procedures or whether one of the workers had a hand in it," he
said.
Bureau Report