Ammonia blast in Moscow meat factory kills one, injures two

Moscow, May 3 (UNI) An ammonia blast at Mikoyan meat factory here today killed one person and injured two others.

''The toxic gas did not spread beyond the factory premises.

All meter readings are normal,'' an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman told Interfax news agency.

''The incident occurred at 2:15 a.m. (local time) reportedly when a pipeline filled with a cooling agent was damaged by a truck,'' Yevgeny Bobylyov, the head of the Moscow Emergency Situations Department's press service said.

The damaged pipeline with a diameter of 100 millimeters was quickly welded up, Mr Bobylyov said, adding rescue workers managed to stop further contamination by cooling the gas with water, pumping the ammonia-water mixture into tanks and removing them.

An inquiry committee has been set up to investigate the accident and to determine why the pipe was not protected by fencing.

The injured had been rushed to a nearby hospital.

Earlier, an ammonia explosion occurred at a cold storage facility here in April 2004, when three people were injured in a fire caused by a major ammonia leak.

UNI