Five Soldiers Killed in Bomb Disposal Training Accident
February 24th, 2011
Five soldiers were killed and three injured today in an accidental explosion at a military facility in central Spain that houses a bomb disposal training centre, the defence ministry said.
The accident occurred at the Military Engineering Academy at Hoyo de Manzanares, 35 kilometers from Madrid, which also houses the International Demining Centre.
“Five soldiers died and three others were injured” and taken to hospital, it said.
Defence Minister Carme Chacon postponed a trip to Budapest for a meeting with her EU counterparts in order to visit the scene.
“It was a explosion of great magnitude,” she said.
Those killed were on a training exercise aimed at preparing them to join Spain’s contingent in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), where they were to have taken part in operations to deactivate explosives, she told reporters.
“They were preparing to save lives in Lebanon when their lost their own lives.”
Among them “were some of the best bomb disposal experts in the armed forces” and “some had just returned from a mission in Afghanistan,” Chacon said.
Both Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and opposition leader Mariano Rajoy expressed their condolences to the families during a debate in parliament. AFP
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