Yerevan daily doubts cause of blast in Armenian mall

"The causes of the explosion in the Surmalu shopping center are still unknown. According to preliminary reports, a fire broke out in a pyrotechnics warehouse and the three-story warehouse building collapsed. The incident provoked various comments, in particular, that such a powerful explosion and the subsequent destruction could not have occurred only from the fire."

Caliber.Az reports citing Yerevan-based Hraparak newspaper that there were rumors of a terrorist act, but Armenian Emergencies Minister Armen Pambukhchyan ruled out this version.

"When we watched security video, we realized that the version about a terrorist act is absurd. Some ignition and smoke occur before the explosion. There was some kind of fire inside, then it spread to the materials. According to our information, it is 99 per cent true," said the Armenian minister.

According to the newspaper, journalists turned to fire expert Sashik Brutyan, who has years of professional experience in the field.

"I cannot say and decide what quantity of explosives might have been in the warehouse. Then, to make any assumptions, we have to know the thickness of the walls, but it is doubtful that a firework could have caused such a detonation (explosion), so it is difficult for me to say what the consequence was," said the expert.

Commenting on the rumor that the scale of the blast was similar to a TNT explosion, Brutyan said only the investigation can figure that out for sure, the rest is guesswork.

"They will take specific samples from the epicenter of the explosion, and they will be able to say exactly what detonated. Right now, I can't speculate on what might have exploded," Brutyan said.

"Each of the buildings explodes differently. Why is that? Is it normal or not? Well, the building weakened from the first explosion, then it collapsed from the second explosion and the shock wave.

Is the hypothesis of a fireworks explosion correct and could it have caused such a catastrophe?", were the questions journalists addressed to the expert.

"It depends on what kind of charges were there because there is powerful pyrotechnics. In any case, we must first find out the number of charges there, and then, accordingly, make calculations. If there were a lot of them and they start to burn, then detonation can happen, but it is quite difficult to predict the shock wave," said the expert.