Thousands evacuated after explosion at Ukraine ammunition depot

Massive explosive at military ammunition depot in central Ukraine prompted the evacuation of 30,000 people and closing of airspace over the region as a precautionary measure, local media reports said

The blasts, followed by a blaze, happened late on September 26 at a base near Kalynivka in the Vinnytsya region, authorities said today.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who arrived in the region hours after the blast, blamed "external factors" for the incident.

Ukraine's military prosecutor's office is treating the fire as sabotage and Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) investigators will investigate the cause of fire.

The chief of Ukraine's National Police, Vyacheslav Abroskin, said in a statement on September 27 that hundreds of police officers from the Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Khmelnitskiy, Kyiv, and Chernivtsi regions were providing security and safe evacuation of people at the site.

Some 600 National Guard troops were deployed in the region to provide security and safe evacuation of people at the site.