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There are no WMD at depot on fire --Asst to CMD Cmdr

There are no WMD, either nuclear, chemical or biological, at the depot

KOLTUBANOVSKY TOWNSHIP, Orenburg Region, June 12 (Itar-Tass) — There are no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) at the depot where a fire broke out on Monday,Yaroslav Roshchupkin, Assistant to the Commander of the Central Military District, told Itar-Tass.

"There are no WMD, either nuclear, chemical or biological, at the depot. Observation posts have been set up at fire towers. They repor the situation every fifteen minutes. The area has been cordoned off. Roads have been closed to traffic. The situation has now stabilized. Desultory bursts are heard," Roshchupkin said.

Following flying around the depot grounds together with Deputy Minister of Defence Dmitry Bulgakov, Roshchupkin said the concrete-surfaced storage facility of the military depot was undamaged.

"The shells that exploded had been kept at open-air storage sites surrounded with five-metre earth walls. Therefore exploding shells could disperse only vertically," Roshchupkin said. He pointed out that the military depot was to be inactivated and the munitions were to be eliminated in 2013. By the moment of the emergency, more than a half of munitions kept there were already eliminated. In all, the depot contained more than 12,000 tonnes of 122 mm and 152 mm shells. "It can be said with confidence already now that the bulk of munitions has remained intact," Roshchupkin added.

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