At least 68 people have been killed in a gas explosion in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan.
Nearly 300 others were also injured in the incident on Monday evening. Local authorities said on Tuesday that the explosion happened at a petrol station just outside the main city of Khankendi, known as Stepanakert by Armenians. The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenians has been ongoing for decades, with around 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the disputed location. The explosion occurred as people were queueing to fill their vehicles with fuel.
It is not yet clear what caused the explosion that has also left 105 people unaccounted for. The station was full of Armenians attempting to flee the region out of fear that Azerbaijan could soon begin ethnic cleansing.
Firefighters on the site of the fire after the explosion (ARTSAKH/NAGORNO-KARABAKH HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Nagorno-Karabakh presidential aide David Babayan said initial reports suggested negligence was the cause and that sabotage was unlikely, reports MailOnline. Russian peacekeepers have been posted in the region since 2020 and assisted the emergency workers at the scene.
The Armenian health ministry said it was sending helicopters to evacuate patients from the region's hospitals and Azerbaijan also said it had sent in medical supplies. While the Armenian government said more than 28,000 refugees have crossed into the country since since Azerbaijan launched a major military operation last week to take back control of the region.
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A total of 290 people were injured 105 left unaccounted for (AP)The fleeing started once Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockage of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank, told the Associated Press: "I think we're going to see the vast majority of people in Karabakh leaving for Armenia.
"They are being told to integrate into Azerbaijan, a country that they've never been part of, and most of them don't even speak the language and are being told to dismantle their local institutions. That's an offer that most people in Karabakh will not accept."
One victim is transported to the National Burn Medical Center in Yerevan, Armenia (AP)Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that ethnic cleansing is "under way" in the region. The area separated from Azerbaijan following the fall of the Soviet Union and ethnic Armenian forces eventually controlled Nagorno-Karabakh after a six-year separatist war that ended in 1994.
Tensions have been rising for many decades and in 2020 Azerbaijan took parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and reclaimed surrounding territory that it had previously lost.
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