Tons of old munitions explode in Russia

Four thousand tons of old munitions blew up at a military site in central Russia on Tuesday, releasing a plume of white smoke into the sky and sending panicked locals fleeing for their lives.

The Donguz military range 30km south of the city of Orenburg in the Ural mountains region caught fire after the old munitions unexpectedly exploded, the emergency and defence ministries said.

The Russian military has a huge stockpile of outdated munitions that are poorly maintained and frequently explode, causing casualties and deaths.