Yerevan, August 15 (UNI) A total of five people died as a result of the explosion at the Surmalu market in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Hayk Kostanyan, the press secretary of Armenia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, said on Monday.
"Rescuers recovered the body of a woman in her 50s from the rubble. The death toll has risen to four," Kostanyan said on social media.
In a later update he added that "rescuers have just pulled out the body of the fifth victim from under the rubble."
He said that two of the victims have not been identified yet.
Earlier, Kostanyan said that the identities of three people killed by the Surmalu blast had been established, while the fate of another 17 people remained unknown. According to Kostanyan, the dead include two women and one man.
On Sunday, the Yerevan City Council reported 27 people missing after the explosion at a fireworks storage area in the Surmalu shopping center. The mayor’s office said that three people were killed by the blast and another 61 were injured.
The Armenian emergency services told Sputnik that specialists from the Russian-Armenian center of humanitarian response helped extinguish the Surmalu market blaze on Sunday.
UNI SPUTNIK RKM