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Bumbling Russian sergeant accidentally detonates grenade in his bedroom at ammunition storage unit with massive explosion and fire killing three, injuring 16 and leaving at least eight missing
- Three dead, 16 injured and eight missing after grenade explosion in Russia
- Local emergency services report carelessness with ammunition officer
- Fifteen forced to evacuate after resulting fires grew to 4,845 square feet (450 m)
Three Russian soldiers were killed and sixteen wounded when a sergeant accidentally detonated a grenade near an ammunition depot in Belgorod, Russia.
Russian news agencies reported on Sunday that the explosion occurred at a repurposed cultural center near the border with Ukraine, which was used to store ammunition and house Russian soldiers.
A source in the local emergency services. saying: ‘The preliminary cause of the explosion is careless handling of ammunition.
Emergency services said Interfax that a sergeant inadvertently detonated an RGD-5 anti-personnel grenade in the building’s bedrooms, next to the weapons storage room, causing an explosion and fire which grew to 4,843 square feet (450 square meters).
Pro-Russian troops with a rocket-propelled grenade in Mariupol, Ukraine, in May 2022. High explosives have been a regular feature of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine since last year.
Abandoned ammunition boxes in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine in September 2022
Independent online news agency Baza reclaimed the sergeant picked up the grenade to gain authority in front of his subordinates.
Fifteen people were forced to evacuate nearby buildings in the village of Tonenkoye when the explosion started fires, and eight soldiers are still missing as of Sunday night.
Other sources reported the officer was a ‘sergeant major’ and platoon commander.
Channels 112 and Baza Telegram, linked to Russia’s law enforcement, said the dead and wounded were recruits called to fight in Ukraine as part of a mobilization campaign.
The reports did not say exactly when the incident occurred.
The Belgorod region borders northeastern Ukraine, where the city of Kharkiv has been the target of multiple Russian missile attacks since the invasion of Ukraine last February.
In October a gunman opened fire at one of several military bases in the Belgorod region, killing 11 soldiers and wounding 15.
Fuel and ammunition stores have also been rocked by explosions in what Moscow said were Ukrainian attacks. Kyiv, without claiming responsibility, has described them as ‘karma’ for the invasion of Russia.
Telegram channel 112, a news channel that follows the incidents in Russia, wrote that a criminal case had been opened after the event.