Five killed in blast at Russian gunpowder plant

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 June 20, 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 TASS.

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 in 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 the residential areas of Kotovsk.