KABUL, June 30: Afghan authorities believe negligence, not sabotage, caused a deadly munitions dump explosion on its south-east border and have arrested two locals, an official said Sunday.

“Two locals from Kandahar have been arrested,” Khaled Pashtoon, a spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha, told AFP, without specifying the reason for their arrest

“The investigation shows it was due to personal negligence and we have no grounds to say the blast was an act of sabotage.”

Pashtoon was speaking by satellite telephone from Kandahar.

Officials were still investigating the explosion in the massive arms stockpile that set off a series of blasts through Thursday night into early Friday, killing and wounding dozens of people.

Several buildings, including the arms depot and a nearby customs warehouse, were demolished in the blast, and homes, government buildings and foreign aid agency offices were damaged. Pashtoon confirmed the deaths of three civilians and one soldier and said another 40 were injured.

But residents and a UN official, citing Spin Boldak authorities, said more than 30 people were killed, including women, children and Afghan soldiers.

Local officials told journalists in the border town on Saturday that 10 bodies had been retrieved from the rubble. —AFP