Governor says initial evaluations blame wheat dust compression for the explosion.
At least 12 people have been injured when an explosion rocked grain silos near the port of Derince in western Turkey, according to state media.
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said on Monday that three of 12 people injured were in serious condition.
An explosion
occurred approximately at 2:40pm (11:40 GMT) near Turkish Grain Board (TMO) silos, Seddar Yavuz, the governor of Kocaeli where the port is located, said on Monday.
"Initial evaluations show that an explosion occurred due to wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silo," he added.
"We were told that it is technically possible that a blast could occur due to compression of wheat dust,
but we are investigating every possible reason," Yavuz said.
Yavuz also said that health, search and rescue and fire brigade teams were quickly transferred to the region following the incident.
"We quickly rescued our friends from the scene and sent them to health institutions with ambulances as soon as possible," the governor added.
"We have 10 injured people so far," he said, adding that "two of them are in a slightly more serious condition."
'Immense impact'Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said
that there was an immense impact in the region due to the explosion.She reminded that the Kocaeli area suffered a huge earthquake in 1999 and Turkey was hit by two huge tremors across 11 cities in February.
"Everybody in the regions was afraid as the impact of this mass explosion was felt all around the Izmit Gulf where the port is located, according to witnesses," Koseoglu said.
Police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and videos on social media showed a huge cloud of smoke.
The TMO said that
13 silos and outbuildings were damaged in the incident.
"It is considered that the explosion may be due to dust compression and the cause will be clarified after detailed technical investigation," the statement said.
The Ministry of Transportation said
no ships were damaged due to the explosion.
Comment: Whilst explosion at grain silos are not unheard of - here's one
reported back in 2020 in the UK - considering the significance of grain shipments at the moment, the location of the blast, in addition to this being the 2nd blast
reported in the last 2 weeks - the other being in Brazil - one can't help but wonder whether grain silo explosions will be the new food processing plant fires.
As the following article details, the food supply has been made particularly vulnerable due to an over reliance on critical locations, which could become choke points:
From fields to front lines: Satellite data reveals the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food supply
Silo blast in southern Brazil kills at least eight, one missing
At least eight people were killed and nearly a dozen were injured after a grain silo explosion on Wednesday at an agricultural co-operative in southern Brazil, the government of Parana state where the incident occurred and the company involved said on Thursday.
The blast happened at the C.Vale co-operative in the small town of Palotina, about 600 km (370 miles) from the state's capital Curitiba. Parana is one of Brazil's top farm states.
C.Vale said in a statement that cause of the explosion cannot be determined at this time as rescue workers were still looking for a missing person.
A company spokesperson said seven of those who died were foreign workers, mostly Haitians, and one was Brazilian.
C.Vale said the silo where the explosion occurred stored about 12,000 metric tons of soybeans and 40,000 metric tons of corn.
The company, which stores grains in 125 units across five Brazilian states and in Paraguay, had said earlier in the day nearly a dozen people had been hospitalized after the blast, excluding the fatalities.
Jose Ricken, president of Parana's farm cooperative group OCEPAR, told reporters that this was an isolated case, adding there had been no such incidents in the area "in a long time."
A similar explosion took place in 1993, C.Vale confirmed.
Ricken declined to speculate on the causes of the explosion, deferring questions to authorities as investigations are ongoing.
See also:
Lithuania calls on EU to 'simplify' Ukrainian grain exports through Baltic States to cope with fall out of West's sabotage of Grain DealA selection of the food plant fires in the last year or so:
Comment: Whilst explosion at grain silos are not unheard of - here's one reported back in 2020 in the UK - considering the significance of grain shipments at the moment, the location of the blast, in addition to this being the 2nd blast reported in the last 2 weeks - the other being in Brazil - one can't help but wonder whether grain silo explosions will be the new food processing plant fires.
As the following article details, the food supply has been made particularly vulnerable due to an over reliance on critical locations, which could become choke points: From fields to front lines: Satellite data reveals the impact of the war in Ukraine on global food supply See also: Lithuania calls on EU to 'simplify' Ukrainian grain exports through Baltic States to cope with fall out of West's sabotage of Grain Deal
A selection of the food plant fires in the last year or so: