Blasts at arms depot leave 96 dead

MOZAMBIQUE declared three days of national mourning yesterday after an explosion at an arms depot in the capital Maputo killed nearly 100 people and injured hundreds more, many of them children.

Exploding bombs, mines and rounds of ammunition set off others around them in the country’s largest arms depot late Thursday, in a series of blasts that could be heard around the city.

“In Maputo hospitals, we registered 96 people dead and more than 400 injured,” health minister Ivo Garrido told a press conference.