15 000 tonnes of grains damaged in blast near Derince port, Turkey

Some 15 000 tonnes of grains were damaged when a blast ripped through grain silos near the port of Derince in northwest Turkey on Monday, the presidency’s communications directorate said.

The blast took place due to wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silos, Seddar Yavuz, the governor of Kocaeli province, said on Monday. It was not clear what other grains were stored in the silos.

The explosion at the Turkish Grain Board (TMO) silos damaged 13 of the 60 silos there, and injured 12 people.

The TMO’s Port of Derince silos have the capacity to hold 95 000 tonnes of grains, and there were 75 000 tonnes stored when the explosion took place, the directorate’s statement said.

“According to the initial examinations, some 20% of the storage was damaged,” it said.