On July 7, an explosion occurred at the Promsyntez plant in Chapayevsk, Samara region, Russia, the Russian state-controlled TASS reported. The explosion killed six people and injured two others. According to TASS, it happened after a technical pipeline was dismantled. A criminal investigation has been launched. There was no fire after the explosion.
The Baza Telegram channel reports that a pipe that supplied nitrogen to the building exploded.
According to the plant's website, Promsyntez is one of the main producers of industrial explosives in Russia and the CIS. The company's products are used in oil and gas exploration and mining.
The company was established in January 1997. It employs about 1,300 people.
This is the second explosion at a Russian explosives plant in a month. On 20 June, a shop at the Tambov Gunpowder Plant, located in Kotovsk, exploded. According to RFE/RL, four workers were killed and 12 others injured.
No information on the cause of the explosion was available; the state-run TASS news agency quoted the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying that there was a "pop followed by a fire" at the plant. The governor of the Tambov Oblast, Maksim Yegorov, said that, according to preliminary data, there was no sabotage, and that the explosion was allegedly caused by a "human factor."
The Tambov Gunpowder Plant, according to its website, is "one of the largest enterprises in the ammunition and specialty chemicals industry. It produces pyroxylene powders for all types of weapons, artillery systems of all calibers in service with the Army, Navy, and aviation."
