Arms factory warehouses caught fire in Bulgaria — for the second time in 33 days
There are 11 warehouses on the site in total.
On the night of September 12, a fire broke out at an ammunition depot of the EMCO arms factory in the area of Gorni-Vyrpishta village in Gabrovo region, Reuters.com writes.
One of the company's directors, Slavcho Dimiev, officially confirmed this information to the Bulgarian National Television.
There are 11 warehouses on the site in total. The fire started in one of them, after which it spread to two neighboring ones. Ammunition detonated there, and a series of explosions was heard. Two guards managed to leave the territory; there were no casualties. The nearest settlement is located more than a kilometer from the facility, and the area was completely cordoned off by firefighters.
A little over a month ago, explosions and a fire occurred at another EMCO factory near the village of Belitsa in central Bulgaria.
At that time, the pro-Russian Bulgarian authorities considered it an accidental incident, not sabotage, and the causes of the incident were "most likely internal."
The defense company EMCO belongs to Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev. He and his arms enterprises have repeatedly been targets of alleged operations by Russian military intelligence due to ammunition supplies to Ukraine.
The Insider, together with Bellingcat and Der Spiegel, investigated an attempt to poison him by GRU employees in 2015, as well as explosions in ammunition depots that were intended, among other things, for Ukraine.
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