A blast at an optics and optical electronics factory in Russia has injured at least 45 people, local authorities say.
Emergency services said the blast appeared to have occurred in a warehouse containing pyrotechnic equipment in Sergiev Posad, a city 75km (45 miles) northeast of Moscow, the state news agency TASS reported.
Twenty-three people were admitted to hospital, including six in intensive care, the mayor’s office said.
While emergency services said the explosion is not believed to be due to a Ukrainian drone attack, Ukrainian officials have questioned what caused it.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister, said on X, the app formally known as Twitter: “Russian media rushed to say that it was pyrotechnics that exploded. But if we look at videos of pyrotechnics exploding, we’ll see that the explosion on the plant doesn’t look like pyrotechnics.”
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