Libya: weapons depot blasts kill 19

Explosions minutes apart at a Libyan military weapons depot killed 19 people and wounded dozens more outside the main rebel-held city of Benghazi on Friday, doctors said.

A Libyan military weapons depot burns outside the main rebel-held city of Benghazi Photo: AP

 

 

Residents living up to 10 kilometres (six miles) from the main weapons warehouse southeast of Benghazi, said windows shook and an inferno lit up the night sky, as ambulances raced to bring the casualties to hospital.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, although most local residents ruled out an air strike by forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Gaddafi in an intensifying battle with eastern rebels fighting for his ouster.

Resident Abdallah Bubakr told AFP rebels turned up at the military base, demanding weapons to take to the front at Raslanuf, an oil town further west that rebels later on Friday claimed to have captured from Gaddafi's forces.

"Two cars rode up with people at the place and said they wanted weapons to take to Raslanuf. They entered the store and just after they left Rajma, there was the first explosion, followed five minutes later by another," he said.

"The first explosion was mild and the second big," he added.