Blast at ammunition depot near Jakarta kills 1, injures 87

USPA News - One Indonesian service member was killed Wednesday and nearly 90 others were injured when an explosion tore through a Navy ammunition warehouse near the capital Jakarta, officials said. The explosion happened Wednesday morning at approximately 10:45 a.m. local time at the ammunition storage facility near Tanjung Priok Harbor in north Jakarta, the nation`s capital.

Indonesian media cited authorities as saying that one service member was killed while 86 others were injured, including 15 people who were released from hospital within hours. The other 71 remained hospitalized on late Wednesday, some of whom were seriously injured. Navy Information Division Chief Commodore Untung Suropati told the Indonesian news agency Antara that an electrical short circuit is believed to have started a fire, setting off explosives that were stored inside the building. "The warehouse did not only store ammunition for light weapons used by frogmen unit (Kopaska) but also explosive materials such as TNT. However, the police and the Navy are still investigating," Suropati told Antara, adding that investigators had not yet been able to access the scene. The ammunition warehouse belongs to the Amphibious Force Command of Indonesia`s western fleet, a group of naval facilities located a short distance from the Jakarta shoreline.