Explosion hits another weapons site in Bulgaria

SOFIA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - An ‌explosion caused ​a ​fire at a weapons storage site in central Bulgaria overnight, local media and officials said on ‌Saturday, the second blaze at a munitions facility ⁠in the past few weeks.

No one was reported injured in the ‌blaze, which broke out near ‌the village of Tsareva Livada and could be seen lighting up the night sky in videos broadcast locally.

“At the moment, ​the fire is on the territory of the storage base of the factory. It is moving from warehouse ⁠to warehouse," Gabrovo regional governor Kristina Sidorova told journalists in the early hours ​of Saturday.

Local media reported that the fire was at a site run by EMCO, which experienced ​an explosion at another facility last ‌month, citing an EMCO company official. Reuters was not immediately able to reach EMCO for ⁠comment.

EMCO is run by Bulgarian arms trader Emilian Gebrev, who Bulgarian prosecutors allege was the target of past attacks on his facilities ⁠by Russian operatives.

In 2024, Bulgaria issued an arrest warrant for six ​Russian citizens accused of involvement in the destruction of EMCO arms depots that were storing munitions for export to Ukraine and Georgia ‌between 2011 and 2020.

Prosecutors at the time said that they could reasonably assume links between ‌the blasts in Bulgaria, an attempted poisoning of Gebrev in 2015, ⁠and munitions depot explosions ‌in the Czech Republic ​in 2014.

Moscow has dismissed the allegations.

(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Kim ‌Coghill)

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