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Five dead and 38 injured in explosion at fireworks depot in the Philippines

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A massive explosion at a pyrotechnics warehouse in the southern Philippines killed five people, including a four-year-old child, emergency services said on Sunday.

The explosion in Zamboanga City on Saturday afternoon ripped a large hole in the ground, hurled debris into surrounding buildings and houses and sparked a major fire, fire inspector Luigi Chan told AFP.

Four…

A massive explosion at a pyrotechnics warehouse in the southern Philippines killed five people, including a four-year-old child, emergency services said on Sunday.

The explosion in Zamboanga City on Saturday afternoon ripped a large hole in the ground, hurled debris into surrounding buildings and houses and sparked a major fire, fire inspector Luigi Chan told AFP.

Four warehouse workers and one employee’s four-year-old son were killed, Chan said.

The city’s disaster management agency confirmed the death toll and said another 38 people were injured in the incident, eight of them seriously.

Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the explosion, which created a 20-meter-wide crater, destroyed the depot’s walls and sent debris raining down on a nearby soft drinks factory, a grain and flour warehouse and nearby homes.

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“The most likely origin of the fire is the pyrotechnics stored in the warehouse,” Chan told AFP.

He said the radius of the explosion extended over more than 3,000 square metres (0.8 acres) and it took firefighters more than two hours to bring the fire under control.

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