TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, April 28 – An explosion at an ammunition disposal plant in southern Albania on Thursday killed one employee and injured three others.
A ministry statement says that tenant Agim Mekollari, 52, died from “an involuntary blast” of a shell in Bigaz, Skrapar district 150 kilometers south of the capital, Tirana, at one of the army’s munitions disposal plants.
Three other employees were injured at Thursday’s blast but they were not in life threatening conditions.
Work has been suspended. They were during the process of dismantling the shells through explosions. The ministry said that the munitions disposal is a “dangerous process for the health and life of the personnel. The Armed Forces have taken all the necessary steps to minimize the level of danger and prevention of extraordinary events,”
Albania has pledged that until 2014 it will complete of the disposal of tens of thousands of excess ammunition that have remained since the communist regime fell in 1990.
Three years ago, 26 people died and around 300 others were injured from a huge blast at a private disposal factory near Tirana.
