Gasoline Storage Explosion in Karabakh: More than 200 People Injured

A powerful explosion occurred at a petrol storage in Karabakh on Monday evening, injuring more than 200 people. The explosion occurred in a storage near the Stepanakert (Azerbaijani name Khankendi) - Askeran highway. The State Emergency Situations Service, the de facto authorities of the region, said that many injured people were being taken to medical institutions, there were also dead. At the same time, they did not name any figures. Gegham Stepanyan, the ombudsman for Karabakh’s de facto authority, later said the number of wounded exceeded 200, many of them in serious and critical condition. He said people needed to be transported urgently for a better chance to be saved because hospitals in the region were “cared for with limited medical and medication capacity” and the resources available were insufficient. The Ministry of Health of the unrecognized region subsequently reported that it was preparing to transport the injured to Armenian hospitals. Baku, for its part, said it had sent aid to Stepanakert (Khankendi) to rescue the victims. After Azerbaijan’s “anti-terrorist operation” against Karabakh, the unrecognized region’s authorities agreed to a de facto capitulation on Baku’s terms. On Sunday-Monday, Armenians who do not want to stay in Karabakh began to leave the region after its transition under Azerbaijani control. According to the latest data, more than 6 thousand people have already arrived in Armenia. The population of the whole region is about 140 thousand people.