MOSCOW. June 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Five people were killed and one wounded during the destruction of ammunition at a proving range not far from the Krasnooktyabrsky village in the Mariy-El internal republic, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Five civilians - two adults and three teenagers - were killed late on Tuesday during the destruction of written-off ammunition at a proving range of a military unit reporting to the Defense Ministry Missile and Artillery Directorate. One more teenager was seriously wounded and taken to hospital," the source said.
"After a batch of shells was prepared for destruction by blast, the range area was checked, and specialists moved to the shelter. The bodies of five men and a wounded teenager were found on the scene after the blast," the source stressed.
"The Defense Ministry press service officially confirms the emergency situation at the proving range and the death of people," an on-duty official of the press service told Interfax- AVN. He declined to disclose details of the incident.
According to the source, the incident occurred because of poor protection of the proving range.
"So-called scrap metal hunters penetrated the territory of the proving range before. Apparently this happened again in this case," he said.
No official confirmation of this information has been obtained.
Meanwhile, the military prosecutor's office of the Ioshkar- Ola garrison has opened a criminal case into the death of five people. "The criminal case has been opened on charges of violating security regulations," a spokesman for the Central Military Prosecutor's Office has said.
A team of experts from the military prosecutor offices of the Ioshkar-Ola garrison and the Volga-Urals Military District are now working at the scene.
"Investigators will have to establish how five civilians entered the testing ground and the circumstances of their deaths," he said.