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    Categories: 2022

Armenia declares two-day mourning for mall blast victims

India – Aug 17 2022
IANS | 10:41 AM

YEREVAN: Armenia has declared Wednesday and Thursday as days of mourning for victims of a blast at a shopping mall outside capital Yerevan earlier this week.

The decision was published on the official website of the Armenian government, reports Xinhua news agency.

The death toll increased to 16 on Tuesday after rescue workers pulled out more bodies out of the rubble of the collapsed buildings.

According to authorities, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead.

Three people remain unaccounted for and seven were still hospitalized, the authorities said, adding that a rescue operation was still underway.

An investigation has been launched to ascertain the cause of Sunday's blast.

Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Pambukhchyan on Monday denied the possibility that the blast was carried out by terrorists.

According to the latest investigations, the blast occurred when a warehouse where fireworks were stored blew up at the wholesale site, triggering an explosion of a gas pipeline.

The three-storey building collapsed.

The massive blast generated huge clouds of smoke and several buildings collapsed, triggering panic.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS