Rescuers have halted work for the night for fear of setting off more unexploded shells at the site of the devastating Albanian munitions blast, as the death toll rises to nine.
Earlier today, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced the discovery of four more victims at the site of the blast, near the village of Gerdec outside the capital Tirana.
All day, rescuers searched the rubble at the army depot, sifting through the remains of communist-era weaponry and what was left of the surrounding houses.
Yesterday’s series of blasts also left more than 200 people injured.
Mr Berisha told reporters that ‘at least a dozen people are reported missing.’
‘We are verifying employees' registers who were at the site at the time of blast,’ Mr Berisha said.
Some 1,000 soldiers and 500 policemen had been working at the blast site since yesterday morning.
They had to secure the disaster zone to guard against further explosions and to demine the area, while army helicopters were flying over the site, about 12km north of Tirana.
Officials said the blast had destroyed at least 318 houses, seriously damaged another 185 and inflicted lesser damage on about 1,800.
‘The government of Albania will assist all familes and help inhabitants of this region,’ Mr Berisha said, adding that an investigation into the incident had already begun.
Officials said 121 people were in the depot at the time of the explosion, but authorities were hoping that many of them had found somewhere to take shelter after the first blast.
A pall of thick, black smoke still hung over Gerdec, where an eerie silence prevailed today, broken only by sporadic explosions almost 24 hours after the first blast.
Despite the danger of unexploded ordnance, dozens of villagers returned to the area to inspect their homes, many of which were razed to the ground, nothing left but still smoldering ruins.
The corpses of dead cattle were littered everywhere and trees had been blown apart by the detonations.
