May 24, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

MOSCOW, May 23: A fire that raged through an arms depot at an air base in northern Russia on Friday set off air-to-air missiles but caused no casualties, the head of the air force said.

“As a result of the fire, air-to-air missiles exploded. There were no deaths or injuries,” Alexander Zelin was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

Images on Russia’s Vesti-24 television showed heavy smoke billowing from a forested area and the smouldering remains of what appeared to be a missile.

Zelin said an inquiry was under way, adding that the fire broke during a lunch break while work was being carried out in an arms depot.

The fire at the Lodeinoye Pole base, some 200 kilometres northeast of Saint Petersburg was extinguished within a few hours and local inhabitants did not have to be evacuated, Russian news agencies reported.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted a source from the security forces as saying that remains of the missiles had been found up to four kilometres from the scene of the fire.—AFP