12 die as bush fire ignites gunpowder store at naval base in Cyprus

A massive explosion ripped through a Cypriot naval base yesterday after a brush fire detonated stored gunpowder, killing 12, wounding 62 and prompting the resignations of the country’s defence minister and top military chief.

Bodies covered with white sheets lay scattered on a charred hillside near the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base on the island’s southern coast, while ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals in Larnaca and Limassol. The bodies of the dead where taken to a morgue at Nicosia hospital in the Cypriot capital.

The blast occurred in the early hours of the morning when the fire reached dozens of storage containers holding gunpowder that had been confiscated in 2009 from a ship heading from Iran to Syria.

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With criticism mounting over how the material had been handled and stored, Defence Minister Costas Papacostas and the country’s top military official, National Guard chief General Petros Tsalikides, resigned.

A government spokesman said investigators had ruled out sabotage as a cause for the blast and he confirmed experts will be called from abroad to help determine the exact cause of the explosion.

President Dimitris Christofias had asked Tsalikides and Papacostas to remain in their posts until replacements were found.

The government has declared a three-day mourning period with all flags at public buildings flying at half staff.

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