In Indonesia, 13 people died as a result of an explosion of ammunition during disposal

An explosion during the disposal of decommissioned ammunition in the village of Sagara in the Indonesian province of West Java killed 13 people — nine civilians and four soldiers. This was reported on May 12 by the Antara News agency, citing the country's armed forces.

According to the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), the explosion occurred at 09:30 local time (13:30 GMT), when officers were trying to dispose of unusable and unused ammunition at a facility owned by the Garut County Natural Resources Protection Agency (BKSDA).

The chief of Staff of the army, General Maruli Simanjuntak, clarified that the causes of the explosion were being established.

According to the head of the TNI information department, Major General Cristomea Sianturi, the bodies of the deceased soldiers were taken to the regional general hospital for autopsy. He stressed that TNI and officers are coordinating actions at the scene to "secure and clear the incident site as a precaution against other potential explosions."

Earlier, on April 29, an explosion at a military laboratory for testing ammunition and weapons in Romania killed one employee of the unit. It was clarified that the deceased 47-year-old woman was engaged in the physico-chemical analysis of explosive and pyrotechnic materials.