An ammunition dump at a Russian military base exploded, injuring multiple people

AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

A powerful explosion is seen in the ammunition depot at a military base in Kalynivka, west of Kiev, Ukraine, early Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017.

• An ammunition dump at a Russian military base in Siberia has exploded, Russia's TASS reported Monday.
• The depot, according to the Russian defense ministry held "gunpowder charges for artillery shells." A local emergency services source told state media that the facility held around 40,000 artillery shells.
• At least four people were injured in the blast, medics revealed. Authorities are evacuating local residents who live within 12 miles of the magazine.
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An ammunition dump at a Russian military base exploded Monday, setting off fires that injured a handful of people, Russian media reports.

The blast occurred in Achinsk, a military town in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region. "The explosion went off in an ammunition depot, evacuation is being carried out," a source with the emergency services in the area told state-run news agency TASS.

"Two sites are on fire," the source added. "In total, there are about 40 thousand artillery shells of a 125 and 152-mm caliber there." The Russian defense ministry said the facility contained "gunpowder charges for artillery shells," the Associated Press reports.

At least four people were hurt, suffering burns and other injuries, local medics told Russian media.

All personnel have been evacuated from the scene, and local residents within 20 km of the base are being evacuated "to ensure the security of the population of the settlements located near the depots.," the Main Directorate of the Russian Emergencies Ministry for the Krasnoyarsk Region revealed.

Ammunition depot explosions are not uncommon in Russia or former Soviet territories. An explosion at an ammunition storage site, one home to around 13 million shells, in Chapaevsk in Russia's Samara region back in 2013 injured around 30 people.