At least ten people were killed and dozens injured on Friday when two explosions tore through a Bolivian military facility used to store pyrotechnic material, authorities said, with seven people still unaccounted for as rescue efforts continued, according to Al Jazeera.
The blasts struck a barracks in Viacha, a municipality roughly 30km (18 miles) from La Paz, Bolivia’s administrative capital, in an area of the base where fireworks were kept, the country’s Ministry of Defence confirmed.
The precise cause of the explosions remains under investigation.
Viacha’s health director, Rita Nebraska, told a local television station that between 10 and 15 people were believed to have died and that 62 others had been injured.
Fourteen of the wounded, including a girl with third-degree burns, were subsequently transferred to hospitals in La Paz for specialist treatment.
Deputy Defence Minister Ernesto Justiniano Urenda said in a statement that around 50 civilians and six military personnel injured in the blasts “have been treated … by the different medical centres of Viacha”.
He added that an inquiry was under way to establish what caused the explosions, how the pyrotechnic material had been stored, and whether anyone bore responsibility for the incident.
Police spokesman Roger Roca said fireworks had been stored at the facility but that the exact trigger for the detonations had yet to be determined. He confirmed that seven people remained missing as search operations continued at the site.
Firefighters warned that a heat source was still present at the scene, Nebraska said, and urged residents living nearby to remain at least 150 metres away because of the danger of a further explosion.
The warning underscored the volatility of the site even after the initial blasts had subsided.
Police said the force of the explosions damaged dozens of homes in the surrounding area, with many civilians hurt by flying glass as windows shattered across the neighbourhood.
Footage circulated on social media showed one of the blasts blowing out windows in nearby buildings and hurling debris into the air, while a plume of thick black smoke rose above the facility for some time afterwards.
Viacha, an industrial town on Bolivia’s high Andean plateau, or altiplano, sits close to Lake Titicaca and serves as an important rail and manufacturing hub for the wider La Paz metropolitan area.
The military base affected is one of several facilities in the region used by Bolivia’s armed forces for storage and logistics purposes.
Bolivia, a landlocked nation of some 12 million people in central South America, borders Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay.
While the country has periodically suffered fatal explosions linked to fireworks and gas canisters at public gatherings, an incident of this scale at a military installation is unusual and is likely to intensify scrutiny of how the armed forces store combustible material near populated areas.
The government has yet to say whether the incident will prompt a wider review of munitions and pyrotechnic storage protocols at other military sites across the country.
Authorities said the priority for now remained locating the missing and stabilising the area, with emergency crews continuing to monitor the base for signs of renewed danger.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blasts, and officials have given no indication that the explosions were the result of a deliberate attack rather than an accident linked to the stored material.
Search and recovery operations at the site were continuing on Friday evening, according to local authorities.
