Armenia: three persons injured by explosion at gas station

This morning, an explosion occurred at a gas-filling station, located on the highway running to the city of Echmiadzin in Armenia. Three injured persons were taken to hospital.

The station, where a Volkswagen car exploded at 9:52 a.m., is owned by Akop Akopyan, a former Armenian MP.

As a result of the explosion, his son and nephew, and a worker of the station were hospitalized to the intensive care ward of the Burn Centre in Yerevan, the Armenia Today reports.

According to Norayr Davidyan, the director of the centre, the condition of Armen Akopyan, Akop's son, is grave – he has 40% of his body surface burned up; the status of the nephew, also named Armen Akopyan, is extremely grave – 86% of his body surface is burned up.

As reported by Volodya Ovsepyan, the deputy director of the National Centre for Technical Safety and the head of the Yerevan branch of the centre, an examination has been appointed to determine the cause of the explosion.

According to his story, some 15 days ago, the company that owns the station was fined by 1 million drams by the Inspectorate of Fire and Technical Safety; while the station itself has not passed any technical inspection for 2-3 years already, the NEWS.am reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.