Burundi says 13 killed in explosion at military ammunition depot

BUJUMBURA, April 1 - Thirteen people were killed and 57 injured when ammunition exploded due to an electrical short circuit on a Burundian military base on Tuesday night, the army said.

Burundi army spokesperson Gaspard Baratuza told a news conference on Wednesday that houses, buildings, vehicles and military equipment were destroyed in ammunition depot blast in the country's commercial capital of Bujumbura.

The explosions reverberated across the city, sending plumes of smoke into the sky and prompting terrified residents to seek shelter.

A Bujumbura resident who lives nearby said the explosions lasted several hours.

"There was about six hours of projectiles flying overhead and landing randomly," the resident told Reuters, declining to be identified. "We just had to shelter where we were."

In the Musaga neighbourhood near the military base, a resident said they saw a young woman fall to the ground as she fled with a group of people . "After a short while I came to know she was violently hit by a bomb," according to the resident, who also asked not to be named.

Another man was killed just after a prayer meeting at a church in Gasekebuye neighbourhood, another resident said. REUTERS