MOSCOW: Fifteen people died and one person was missing after a fire broke out at a Russian explosives factory southeast of Moscow on Friday, authorities said.
The government of the Ryazan region, where the factory is based, said they had died in the factory blaze in the village of Lesnoye, 300 kilometres (180 miles) from the capital.
"The fate of one person remains unknown," it said in a statement.
One more person was hospitalised with "major burns" and is in a "serious condition", it added.
The emergencies ministry published images showing smoke and debris at the severely damaged factory building.
Earlier it said the fire could have broken out as a result of "violations of technological processes and safety measures" at the local PGUP Elastic factory
The plant is considered a "strategic company" by the Russian government.
According to its website, it belongs to state conglomerate Rostec which brings together a range of companies supplying industrial or high-tech products to civilian and military sectors.
But local media said it went bankrupt in 2015 and that its workshops were used by other companies of the explosives sector.
Firefighters first received a report that a fire had broken out at the plant at 08:22 local time, the emergencies ministry said.
It dispatched its acting head Alexander Chupriyan to the site. He is in charge of the ministry after its chief Yevgeny Zinichev died falling off a cliff during Arctic exercises last month.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said it had sent detectives to probe if the factory had complied with "industrial safety levels".
More than 170 rescuers were working in the area, it added.
The head of the local administration earlier told the TASS news agency that 17 people were inside the plant's workshop at the time of the fire.
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