Trending 
Explosions hit an ammunition storage facility in Bulgaria, police said on Saturday, weeks after a similar incident at another munitions site in the country.
The latest incident occurred late Friday at a warehouse operated by Bulgarian arms manufacturer EMCO near the central village of Gorni Varpishta.
The company’s munitions are used in Ukraine.
No casualties were reported, while workers at the facility were evacuated.
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said the fire started in one of the warehouses and triggered explosions, but there was no immediate risk of the blaze spreading.
Demerdzhiev said authorities were investigating all possible causes. He also said the warehouse, which stored ammunition rounds and other explosive materials, had security shortcomings.
“All hypotheses are on the table, and we are examining them carefully,” he said, adding the warehouse, which contained munition rounds and other explosive materials, had shortcomings including poor security.
The incident occurred about a month after a fire at another EMCO ammunition depot at a nearby site.
EMCO, however, disputed the authorities’ assessment, saying the warehouse involved in Friday’s incident had been regularly inspected and was compliant with safety regulations.
The company said security around ammunition depots was the responsibility of the state and claimed that similar recent incidents had been caused by external forces.
EMCO also ruled out human error as a possible cause and accused authorities of failing to do enough to address what it described as a series of sabotage incidents targeting defence facilities in Bulgaria.
The company said inadequate action by state authorities was allowing those responsible for the alleged sabotage to continue without punishment.
Bulgarian President Iliana Iotova said on Saturday that she was considering convening the country’s National Security Council, a presidential advisory body comprising senior political, security and defence officials.
EMCO is owned by Bulgarian defence executive Emilian Gebrev, who survived a poisoning attempt in 2015 alongside his son and another company executive.
Bulgarian prosecutors have charged three Russian nationals over the poisoning.
Separately, six Russians have been charged with terrorism over four explosions at arms facilities in Bulgaria between 2011 and 2020. Authorities have suspected that those incidents were intended to disrupt arms supplies, including shipments to Ukraine.
Bulgaria has supported Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Earlier this month, firebombs were thrown near defence company offices in Munich, Germany, while an ammunition factory near Rome operated by arms manufacturer KNDS was hit by a blast in August.
