injuring 62, and cutting the island’s electrical production in half.
Cypriot President Demetris Christofias described the immense blast as a “biblical catastrophe.”
The Iranian explosives had been removed in 2009 from a shipdocked at Cyprus because they had been shipped in violation of a UN Security Council resolution forbidding the export of Iranian armaments.
They were stored at a Cypriot naval base at Mari on the island’s southern coast. About 4 a.m. Monday, a brush fire broke out near the base and the flames quickly spread to the base, eventually reaching the storage site where the 98 containers of Iranian explosives had been kept.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said the exact explanation of what happened remains to be determined, “but we are ruling out sabotage based on current information.”
Stefanou said talks were held only last week after the Navy complained that it was very dangerous to store the munitions in the open in the heat of summer. Firemen were periodically spraying the crates with water as a safety measure.
The shipment was destined for Latakia, Syria, whether for the Syrian military or transshipment to Hezbollah in Lebanon was unknown.
Witnesses to the explosion said metal rained down on a nearby highway and the blast wave was felt for miles around in the olive groves and small farming villages that surround the Evangelos Florakis navy base.
The dead included the commander of the Cypriot Navy, the commander of the base where the munitions were stored, six firefighters and four seamen, including twin 20-year-old brothers.
Cyprus’s defense minister and army chief both resigned hours after the explosion, and their resignations were swiftly accepted, a government spokesman said.
The early morning blast badly damaged the Vassilikos power plant. The facility, one of three in Cyprus and the newest, provides the Mediterranean island with half its electricity.
Photographs of the power station showed the explosion had shred the outer walls of two large multi-story buildings.
The island was hit by rolling power cuts as authorities attempted to juggle demand in a peak season. The Agriculture Ministry said all water desalination plants had been shut for the time being. The public was urged to conserve water.
Farmer Nicos Aspros was out tilling his field when the blast occurred. “My tractor jumped about half a meter high,” he told Reuters. “There isn’t a house in the community which hasn’t been damaged.”
As news of the explosion spread, the public rushed to hospitals to donate blood. Authorities issued emergency appeals for people to switch off non-essential electrical equipment and the Commerce Ministry urged residents to use their own generators where possible.
The munitions were being carried on a Russian-owned, Cypriot-flagged cargo ship, Monchegorsk, which sailed from Bandar Abbas. In the Red Sea, it was inspected by the US Navy, which could not see much because of the confined nature of a ship. WikiLeaks cables show the United States asked Cyprus to use the ship’s Cypriot flag to recall the vessel to port. The Cypriots did so. The ship sailed into the port of Limassol and was unloaded. The Cypriots then reported finding the huge quantity of explosives, artillery shells, bullets and primers.