Authorities say the circumstances of the fireplace stay unclear and that three different males are in a critical situation.

No less than 15 males have been killed and three injured in a hearth that broke at a navy unit in Azat village in Armenia’s japanese province of Gegharkunik.

“Based on preliminary knowledge, 15 servicemen have been killed on account of the fireplace that broke out within the barracks of an engineer and sniper firm of a navy unit,” learn a press release from the Ministry of Protection launched on Thursday. It added that the three wounded males have been in critical situation.

The blaze broke out at 1:30am (9.30 GMT) on Thursday “underneath circumstances which have but to be decided”, the ministry mentioned.

The incident follows a blast which happened in August final yr when at the least 16 individuals died and about 60 have been injured. The explosion ripped by means of a warehouse in a market in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.

Azat lies close to the border with Azerbaijan, a rustic that was at battle with Armenia in 2020 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area. The area is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani however it’s populated and managed by its ethnic Armenian majority.

The six-week battle killed at the least 6,500 individuals and ended with a Russian-brokered truce. Armenia ceded a swath of territory it had managed for many years in a transfer that sparked a political disaster.

Whereas the large-scale preventing is over, renewed border clashes maintain occurring. In September final yr, dozens of Armenian troopers have been reportedly killed.

Tensions between the 2 former Soviet republics flared up once more in current weeks as Azerbaijani civilians who say they’re environmental activists have protested alongside the Lachin Hall, the one street linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Yerevan has known as the motion an Azerbaijani government-endorsed blockade.