A powerful blast ripped through an explosives plant in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, killing 11 people and injuring seven others, officials said, downgrading their original toll, Agence France-Presse reported.
Footage showed shards of glass and metal scattered outside the plant north of the city of Balıkesir, where ambulances stood by.
“There are unfortunately 11 deaths … eight women and three men. And we have seven injured,” Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said at the scene.
Two of the seven injured were “under observation” in the hospital, he added.
The authorities previously put the death toll at 12, with five injured.
According to Balıkesir Governor İsmail Ustaoğlu the blast occurred shortly before 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) because of a “technical malfunction” on a production line at the factory, which produces explosives for civilian use.
Six employees of the same factory were injured in a previous explosion in 2014, according to Turkish media.
Images broadcast by Turkish television channels showed part of the factory completely destroyed as well as metal panels and shattered glass on the ground.
One witness on the 24-hour news channel NTV described the scene as a “battlefield.”
A fire that broke out following the explosion was extinguished by firefighters, and the factory was quickly evacuated.
An investigation has been launched, with sabotage already ruled out, according to the authorities.
The factory is located about a kilometer from the nearest village, according to satellite images seen by AFP.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered his condolences and sent his interior, defense and labor ministers to the scene, promising a full investigation into the cause of the blast.
In June 2023 five people died in a blast at an explosives factory in Ankara province, near the Turkish capital.
Three years earlier, in July 2020, seven people were killed and nearly 130 injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in the northwestern province of Sakarya.
In 2009 and 2014, two explosions occurred at the same factory in Balıkesir, killing two people and injuring around 40 others, according to Turkish media.