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Death toll in gunpowder plant fire in southwest Russia rises to five

The fifth worker has died in hospital, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Tambov Region department said

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. An employee of a gunpowder plant in the southwestern Russian region of Tambov, injured during an explosion and subsequent fire at the facility, died in hospital on Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll to five, investigators said.

"The fifth worker has died in hospital," the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Tambov Region department said.

According to local emergency services, a fire erupted at a gunpowder plant in the town of Kotovsk near Tambov following an explosion on Tuesday afternoon. The blaze was contained and extinguished at an area of around one square meter.

Maxim Yegorov, the head of the Tambov Region, told reporters that the alleged incident at the plant was caused by human error. It posed no immediate threat to other employees of the plant or to residential areas of Kotovsk.

The Russian Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal probe on charges of safety violations committed during construction or mining activities, which resulted in multiple deaths. Russia’s national technical watchdog, the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor), is also investigating the matter.

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