Videos shared on Telegram show a colossal fireball in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, after an explosion at a warehouse near the country's biggest airport.
The Central Asian country's health ministry said in a statement on Thursday that a 15-year-old boy was killed after a window frame fell on him while 162 people were injured. The blast reportedly damaged houses 20 miles away.
Multiple videos and photos circulating on social media showed a huge column of fire and a cloud of smoke rising into the sky.
The cause of the explosion is unclear. Russia's state-run news agency Tass cited the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan as saying that a blaze broke out at a warehouse owned by Inter Logistics LLC in Tashkent's Sergeli district after it was struck by "lightning."
However, local news outlet Nova24 reported that the blast damaged nearby houses, shattering windows and damaging doors. The publication said it believes Russian media mistranslated government statements that the cause of the blast was a lightning strike.
"In fact, we are talking about an explosion," Nova24 reported.
Uzbekistan authorities have previously used the term translated by Russian media as "lightning" to describe an explosion.
A Customs Warehouse near the International Airport in the Uzbekistan Capital of Tashkent is reported to have Exploded earlier tonight after a Storage Building filled with Electric Cars and Batteries was possibly struck by Lightning; the Shockwave from the Explosion is said to… pic.twitter.com/IAWsbHw4ud
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) September 28, 2023
The warehouse stores components for electric vehicles, according to the Russian Telegram channel Sirena, which also raised doubts about the cause of the explosion being a lightning strike.
"According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, the cause of the explosion was a lightning strike on a warehouse [which stores] electric cars and batteries for them. At the same time, lightning is not visible in a video [which shows] the moment of the explosion. Also, eyewitnesses did not report this on social networks," the Telegram channel reported.
Newsweek has contacted the Press Secretary of the Minister of Internal Affairs via email to request clarification on the matter.
Uzbekistan's Emergencies Ministry said a "special laboratory" had been set up at the scene of the explosion to investigate the blast.
New video shows just how powerful the massive tonight’s explosion at the airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan was pic.twitter.com/3N436vnj67
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 28, 2023
A video published by the Kremlin-linked Russian Telegram news channel Mash showed the moment windows were blown out of their frames in residential homes.
"The preliminary cause of the explosion in Tashkent could have been batteries for electric vehicles...the explosion was so powerful that almost nothing was left of the warehouse itself," Mash reported.
According to local publication Sputnik-Uzbekistan, some 30 people were hospitalized after the blast.
The Tashkent International Airport is operating as usual, officials were cited by Russia's Interfax outlet as saying.
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About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
