SAMARA. June 13 (Interfax) - Three people have been found alive under the rubble of a house that collapsed as a result of an explosion at an army depot in the Buzuluk district of Russia's Orenburg region.
"As regional police chief Yefrem Romanov and other Interior Ministry officers patrolled one of the villages, local residents told them that people could be trapped under the rubble of a collapsed house. Indeed, the police officers rescued two pensioners and a disabled person, who were subsequently hospitalized," local Interior Ministry spokesman Andrei Zryachkin told Interfax.
Two soldiers and three civilians were injured as a result of the explosion, he said.
Police continue patrolling and guarding the evacuated villages, Zryachkin said.
Bypass routes have been arranged, he added.
Army depots, located in the Orenburg region's Buzuluk district, near the border with the Samara region, caught fire on Monday.
"Military depots are burning 14 kilometers from the village of Koltubanovka. The depots belong to Military Unit No. 96558 of the Russian Defense Ministry," a spokesman for the Orenburg region branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax.
The Orenburg region governor and an Emergency Situations Ministry team left for the site.
Explosions started at the fire-stricken depot, the ministry said later.
Igor Dmitrachkov, an aide to the Orenburg region governor, said that old depots storing decommissioned ammunition were burning.
"There is a danger that the blaze could turn into a forest fire," he told Interfax.
A commission headed by Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Dmitry Bulgakov is en route to the Buzuluk district, the ministry spokesman said.