SALA (Sweden), May 21: Two people were killed and three others injured on Wednesday when one of Sweden’s largest military petrol depots blew up in Sala in central Sweden, emergency authorities said.

The cause of the explosion was not certain, although police said the installation, an isolated warehouse located five kilometres from the nearest building, may have been hit by lightning.

The building served as a secret military depot for aeroplane fuel in the 1980s and was later used to store unleaded petrol, but the Swedish military had in the 1990s decided to shut it down.

Already emptied, it was in the process of being cleaned when the explosion occurred.

Officials said there may have been residual fumes inside the building.—AFP