WASHINGTON: Multiple people were killed after a “devastating” explosion on Friday morning at a military explosives plant in Tennessee, and 19 people were unaccounted for, officials said.
The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems about 50 miles (80 km) west of Nashville occurred at 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT), Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told a press conference.
Davis declined to provide a specific number of deaths, saying it was still possible some employees had survived.
When asked to describe the building where the blast occurred, Davis said, “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.”
Efforts to reach the company were not successful.
Accurate Energetic Systems develops, manufactures and stores explosives for “military, aerospace, and commercial demolition markets,” according to the company’s website. The 1,300-acre headquarters in Bucksnort, Tennessee, includes eight production buildings and a quality lab.
Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told CNN the plant did not have a history of safety problems, although there was a small ammunition explosion there in 2014. That incident killed one person and injured three, according to the Tennessean newspaper.
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