By Clement Manirabarusha
BUJUMBURA, April 1 (Reuters) – Explosions at a military ammunition store in Burundi’s commercial capital on Tuesday night killed four people, with the blasts lasting several hours, according to comments from residents on Wednesday.
An army spokesperson said late on Tuesday that the explosions, which reverberated across the city, sending plumes of smoke into the sky and prompting terrified residents to seek shelter, were caused by an electrical short circuit.
In Bujumbura’s Musaga neighbourhood, residents said the blasts had killed two people, one of them a young woman.
“She was in front of me. I saw her falling as she was running in a group of people. After a short while I came to know she was violently hit by a bomb,” said one resident who asked not to be named.
Another man was killed 100 metres away at a church in Gasekebuye neighbourhood.
“He was in a prayer meeting, just went out of the meeting room and then got hit,” said another resident who did not wish to be named.
Another resident of Gasekebuye said he had taken his employee’s body to the mortuary and saw the body of another victim of the explosion brought in.
A Bujumbura resident who did not wish to be named and lives 1 km away from the ammunition store said the explosions lasted several hours.
“There was about six hours of projectiles flying overhead and landing randomly. During the initial few hours, there was a constant barrage but then it slowed down at around 9 or 10 (pm). The last one I heard was (at) 1230,” the resident told Reuters. “We just had to shelter where we were.”
Authorities have not given an official death toll.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye sent a message of condolence on his X account to those affected by the incident but gave no other details.
(Additional reporting by David Lewis in London; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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