TIRANA, March 15: At least five people were killed and more than 170 hurt on Saturday when powerful blasts rocked an army munitions depot near the Albanian capital Tirana, with the prime minister predicting a “considerable” toll.

The serial explosions at the site, about 12 kilometres north of the city, began at around midday (1100 GMT) and continued at intervals for several hours.

They blew in all the windows of the terminal building at the city’s airport, just over a kilometre from the military base near the town of Vora.

The initial explosion was so loud it was heard in neighbouring Macedonia, 150 kilometres away.

“The number of dead is considerable,” Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha told reporters, as the blasts continued to shake the city.

Albanian Health Minister Nard Ndoka said that at least 170 people were hospitalised, of whom four were seriously injured.

Rescuers found four bodies at the site, Berisha’s spokeswoman Juela Mecani said, but did not specify the nationality of the victims. A US company contracted by Nato is helping Albanian troops dispose of surplus or obsolete munitions.

At least three units totalling some 60 Albanian soldiers were deployed at the time of the blasts, Mecani said earlier.

The US embassy in Tirana, contacted by telephone, was unable to confirm that there were foreigners present at the depot.

In a statement released later in the day, the embassy said it “will help Albanian government” to cope with the situation, but did not indicate if the victims included Americans.

Italy, Macedonia, Turkey and Kosovo also offered aid to Albanian authorities.

“We have sent defence ministry helicopters and we have begun to evacuate the residents of villages neighbouring the depot,” Berisha said earlier.

The depot is located outside the town of Vora and adjoins the village of Gerdec.

Mecani said a number of homes near the depot were “completely destroyed.”The airport was immediately closed and all flights cancelled until further notice.

The injured were admitted to hospital at Durres, west of Tirana, as well as the capital’s military hospital and a civilian health facility.

Most of the casualties at Tirana’s military hospital were civilians brought in a stream of ambulances and private cars.

Many were women and children covered in blood.

A doctor at the hospital compared the flood of people to “a toll of war.” “The situation is serious,” he said, urging citizens to donate blood, “which could run short.”The blasts were so powerful that they were heard in neighbouring Macedonia, prompting dozens of citizens to alert the police as they thought the explosions were occurring within the country, authorities in Skopje said.

In the western part of Macedonia, windows were shattered at a number of houses, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said.

“A lot of people reported very strong blasts to us, but not a single incident was registered” in Macedonia, Kotevski added.

According to Albanian Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu, some 100,000 tons of antiquated munitions from the communist era remain in the country, threatening the population.

Their destruction is one of the conditions Albania has to fulfil to gain membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

—AFP