Dozens wounded by blasts at Kazakh military facility

At least 60 admitted to hospital after blasts at a military facility storing engineering-purpose explosives.

Kazakhstan has evacuated settlements located next to a military facility in its southern Jambyl province after it was rocked by a series of powerful blasts that wounded at least 60 people, authorities in the Central Asian nation have said. The blasts followed a fire at the facility, where some engineering-purpose explosives were stored, deputy defence minister Ruslan Shpekbayev said on Thursday. Separately, traffic and railway authorities said they were closing off a road and a railway passing through the area. Sixty people have been admitted to hospital with injuries from the blasts, the provincial government said, adding that the fire had yet to be put out.