Serb munitions depot blows up, people injured

BELGRADE, Oct 19 (Reuters) A military munitions depot in central Serbia blew up early today, injuring several people and causing major damages in the area, officials said.

The large depot, on a hill above the town of Paracin some 150 km south of Belgrade, was used to store explosives and other military materials. The first explosion blew out many windows in the town, injuring a dozen people.

''The first detonation was heard around 4 am, and then a series of explosions followed,'' Defence Minister Zoran Stankovic told state television. Footage showed clouds of thick smoke billowing from the site.

Police closed the main highway, running from the capital to Serbia's second largest city of Nis, that passes by Paracin. Local and international railway traffic to the town had also been suspended. Schools in the town were shut for the day.

The inhabitants of Paracin and the nearby towns of Jagodina and Cuprija were woken up by the explosion, many staying out on the streets. Some said it reminded them of the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia to force a pullout from its renegade Kosovo province.

''It felt like during the bombing, maybe even more intense,'' Kristina Petrovic, a teacher from Paracin, told Reuters by telephone.

She said two huge blasts were heard within two hours of each other and the ground shook as if by an earthquake. By mid-morning, there was only rumbling and occasional small blasts.

Some 50 buses were on standby in case an evacuation became necessary but military officials looking into the cause of the blasts said there was no danger of chemical polution.

REUTERS PB BD1439