Confiscated Iranian munitions kill 12 people in Cypriot navy base blast

Published on Monday 11 July 2011 16:39

THE head of the Cypriot navy, a navy base commander and six firefighters were among 12 people killed early yesterday after Iranian armaments seized two years ago exploded at a munitions dump, knocking out the island's biggest power station.

The firefighters were called to the Evangelos Florakis navy base on the south coast of the island, near a holiday resort, to tackle a blaze at the dump, which burned for about an hour before causing a huge explosion.

The blast almost levelled the nearby Vassilikos power plant, which produces nearly 60 per cent of the island's energy, damaged buildings in nearby villages and rained metal onto a motorway. All the victims were Cypriots.

The country's defence minister and army chief quit hours after the explosion at the dump, which held confiscated Iranian armaments. A government spokesman ruled out sabotage.

The blast wounded 62 people, shredded the outer walls of two multi-storey buildings and shook olive groves and farming villages for miles around the base.

"My tractor jumped about half a metre in the air," said farmer Nicos Aspros, who was tilling his field at the time of the blast. "There isn't a house in the community which hasn't been damaged."

In Mari, a village partly protected from the blast by a small hill, windows and doors of Eleni Toubi's small home were blown out and the roof was damaged. "It was huge. I fell out of bed and ran to check on the kids," she said.

The Iranian armaments were confiscated from the Monchegorsk, a ship Cyprus intercepted in 2009 sailing from Iran to Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions on Iran. The weapons were believed to be headed for anti-Israeli militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Military sources said they believed all 98 containers of arms, which were kept exposed in scorching temperatures, went up in the blast.

In the capital Nicosia, 40 miles to the north-east, residents woke to power cuts and communications were patchy because mobile networks were jammed.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, gave no details of the storage conditions.

He did not comment on reports that the containers had expanded in the heat, and that authorities had been dousing the area with water to keep temperatures down.

Asked about reports that the base commander had expressed fears over the safety of the storage area, Mr Stefanou said officials convened a meeting last week at the defence ministry to discuss the matter followed by an onsite inspection of the storage area.

He said certain decisions were made but were not implemented in time to prevent the incident.

He said President Demetris Christofias had accepted the resignations of defence minister Costas Papacostas and army chief Petros Tsalikidis.

The son of the dead base commander - Commodore Andreas Ioannides - said his father and other navy officers had repeatedly warned their superiors that the containers were unsafe, and those warnings were ignored.

Speaking on state television CyBC, Nicholas Ioannides said the containers had become "warped" because they had remained exposed to the elements since they were seized. He said his father had sought to have the containers either disposed of or transferred to a safer location. Cyprus stored the Iranian munitions under pressure from the United States in January 2009.

The island was hit by rolling power cuts as authorities tried to juggle demand during the peak summer season. The agriculture ministry said all water desalination plants would shut.

Britain, which has troops stationed on Cyprus, said its personnel were on stand-by to help the local authorities.

Authorities called on Cypriots to switch off non-essential electrical equipment.