An explosion occurred overnight in central Bulgaria, after which an ammunition warehouse near the village of Tsareva Livada caught fire. This is already the second fire at an ammunition production facility in the past few weeks, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
According to preliminary data, no one was injured. Kristina Sidorova, governor of the Gabrovo region, said that the fire spread across the warehouse complex from one building to another.
Local media reported that the facility belongs to EMCO. Last month, another of its facilities was hit by an explosion.
EMCO facilities have previously featured in cases involving Russian sabotage
EMCO is headed by Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev. Bulgarian prosecutors previously stated that his company's facilities could have been targets of Russian operatives.
In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in the destruction of EMCO warehouses. These facilities stored ammunition intended for export to Ukraine and Georgia between 2011 and 2020.
Prosecutors also suggested a possible link between the explosions at Bulgarian warehouses, the attempted poisoning of Gebrev in 2015, and the explosions at ammunition warehouses in the Czech Republic in 2014.