Murder charges filed over Albanian munitions depot blast

Jul 26, 2008, 13:39 GMT

Tirana - Three men were charged with murder as a result of the ammunition depot blast last March that killed at least 15 people and injured hundreds near Tirana, local media quoted the Albanian prosecutor's office as saying Saturday.

Three employees in the depot were also charged for neglecting safety procedures for disposing and destroying munitions, and and had been arrested days after the explosion.

The blast at a depot at Gerdec village near Tirana resulted in at least 300 people being injured and more than 5,500 houses damaged or destroyed.

The depot had hundreds of tons of ordnance bating back as far as 1945. The blast also led to the sacking of the defence minister and army headquarters chief.

In its effort to join the NATO military alliance, Albania needs to dispose of a massive pile of munitions stockpiled during the 50 years of its xenophobic Communist regime.

Potentially dangerous depots such as that at Gerdec, reportedly with up to 100,000 tons of ordnance, are scattered around the country.