Two men died in a blast in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on Tuesday after trying to saw open an artillery shell inside a house, police said. "An explosion went off in the western part of the capital at 6:30 pm (1230 GMT)," interior ministry spokesman Ernis Osmonbayev told AFP.
"As a result of the explosion, two men died. They were apparently sawing open a shell and it detonated. They found two more shells next to them," the head of Bishkek city police, Melis Turganbayev, told AFP.
"The shell exploded inside a house. The dead men were trying to saw open the artillery shell in order to extract gunpowder," the interior ministry said in a statement. It named the dead as brothers Andrei and Anatoly Kolesnikov.