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Some 6,000 residents have been evacuated following explosions in an ammunition depot in Russia's Samara region, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Tuesday.
The first explosion rocked a military test ground in the town of Chapayevsk at about 7:30 p.m. Moscow time (1330 GMT), a spokesperson for the ministry told reporters.
Five explosions of projectiles took place in the test ground, said the spokesperson. Live TV broadcast showed the explosions continued, with cloud-like thick smog engulfing half of the sky.
So far, 22 people have been injured in the explosions, five of them taken to hospitals for treatment, emergency authorities said.
The first powerful explosion shattered window glasses and touched off car alarm systems in a town some 15 km away from Chapayevsk, local residents said.
The site was cordoned off with all roads leading to it blocked. Rescuers and soldiers have been sent to the site to put off the fire.
Preliminary information showed that 13 million projectiles were stored at the depot, a spokesperson for the Samara regional police department, told local media.
The cause of the explosions is yet to be determined.
Russia witnessed several ammunition blasts last year.
On May 18, 2012, an ammunition depot caught fire near Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, injuring at least two soldiers.
Also in May last year, at least five soldiers were killed and three others wounded in an explosion at an ammunition depot in central Russia.
In 2011, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office criticized mass violations of safety rules in the destruction, transportation and storage of the ammunition.
