Scores injured in blasts at Russian military plant

Seventy-nine people were injured when several blasts at the explosives plant Kristall shook the central Russian town of Dzerzhinsk on Saturday (June 1), the Russian health ministry said.

The blasts were heard all over the town of more than 230,000 residents and shock waves smashed or damaged windows in around 180 buildings, city authorities said.

Video shot by TK Dzerzhinsk local TV station showed plume of smoke rising over the explosives factory.

The Kristall plant said that its director had been fired "literally a day before" the blasts for violating industrial safety rules earlier in the year, Interfax reported. He was blamed for an explosion that occurred in April and also destroyed a section of the plant.