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Videos shared on Telegram show a massive mushroom-like plume rising over a city near Moscow after news media reported a huge explosion at a military-linked facility in the Russian capital region.
News of the explosion was reported by Meduza, a Russian- and English-speaking independent news website headquartered in Latvia's capital Riga, which said that the explosion in Sergiev Posad, a city that is part of the Moscow Oblast and some 46 miles from the capital, left more than 40 people injured and broke the windows of 20 buildings nearby.
According to local authorities, some 45 people were injured in total, but Newsweek could not immediately confirm these numbers.
The governor of the Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, said that the buildings near the plant were evacuated, as reported by Russian media on Telegram. The Russian Emergency Ministry issued a report confirming that the explosion was reported to authorities at 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday and that 18 people and six pieces of equipment were deployed to the scene. It called for people to "keep calm" and "don't panic."
Initial reports, citing the Moscow region's prosecutor's office, said the explosion affected the Zagorsk optical-mechanical plant and destroyed its warehouse, although authorities later confirmed the plant has been repurposed into a fireworks storage facility.
"This factor had nothing to do with optics or mechanical manufacturing for a long time. It mostly produces fireworks. And the explosion that we all saw occurred in the area where the pyrotechnic production takes place," Moscow Oblast governor Vorobyov told RIA Novosti, a state news outlet.
Smoke from the fire, which affected an area of over 500 square feet (50 square meters), could be seen rising in the sky above the factory.
Videos shared on Telegram channels including Sirena and Astra show a big, loud explosion followed by a massive plume of smoke rising in the sky. People can be seen leaving buildings to check on the situation, as car alarms were set off by the explosion.
Another video, shot from a moving car and shared by Mash, a news outlet, shows the explosion as it happened from a closer perspective.
Later videos emerged purporting to show the aftermath of the explosion, including one said to be filmed in the "kill zone" of the blast, shared on multiple Telegram channels.
Images shared later on Telegram by Russian channels show that the plume of smoke only got higher following the explosion.
"Large clouds of smoke rise in the area of the Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant," Russian pro-war blogger Rybar wrote on Telegram. "Based on the materials that appeared on the web, the facilities of the Piro-Ross fireworks company are on fire."
Piro-Ross recently filed for bankruptcy, according to reports by various Russian outlets including Agentstvo.
The same plant suffered an unexplained fire in June 2022. Local media report that emergency services told TASS, the country's state-owned news agency, that the cause of the explosion was "the human factor" and was not linked to a drone attack.
The Moscow Region Department of the Investigative Committee said they have opened a criminal case under the article on violation of industrial safety requirements after the explosion in Sergiev Posad.
Newsweek contacted Russia's Emergencies Ministry for comment by email on Wednesday.
Update 8/9/23 11:05 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional details.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more