Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked a number of senior military officials over two fatal explosions at a weapons depot in central Russia that killed 10 people, reports said Tuesday.
The two blasts happened over the past 10 days at a Russian army munitions depot in Ulyanovsk, 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of Moscow.
Medvedev fired the head of the armed forces' military engineers and the defence ministry's chief of artillery, Russian news agencies reported.
Several senior military officials from Ulyaanovsk and the commander of the weapons depot will also lose their jobs, the reports said.
"I have ordered the defence minister to take disciplinary measures against other officials from the defence ministry and the Volga region," Medvedev was quoted as saying.
Eight soldiers died in a blast at the munitions depot on Monday, some 10 days after two firefighters were killed by multiple explosions at the same location.
After the November 13 accident, Medvedev ordered two ministries to investigate the causes and also gave military bases two weeks to verify their fire safety and prevention measures.
Accidents involving exploding ammunition are common at Russia's run-down military bases. In September, a fire set off a munitions blast at a base in the Urals cityr of Chelyabinsk, killing an officer and wounding two conscripts.
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