Yerevan explosion victims out of danger – details from hospital
The lives of all the victims of the Yerevan restaurant explosion are out of danger and the injuries won’t have consequenes, Samvel Karapetyan, head of the intensive care unit of Grigor Lusavorich hospital told reporters.
According to him, most of the victims are in fair and satisfactory conditions. “The surgery of the 8 year old girl is underway, it is proceeding already 1,5 hours and will probably be finished during an hour,” he said.
The doctor said 3-4 people are likely to be discharged. “They already can and want to be discharged, but we are keeping the under supervision. The majority of the victims will be discharged tomorrow,” Karapetyan said, adding that the foreigners who were among the injured – the three Russians and two Iranians, are also in normal condition.
Rubina Markosyan, the eight year old girl who was seriously wounded in the blast, is undergoing surgery for heavy injuries. The ministry of emergency situations released the identities of the injured : Rudolph Markosyan, 6, Rubina Markosyan, 8, Zaruhi Melikyan, 19, Erik Ashughyan, 24 – Iran national, Alyona Agapova, 15 – Russia national, Liza Abramova, 15 – Russia national, Yaroslav Lyubenko, 15 – Russia national, Zeyna Husseini, 24, Iran national.
The preliminary suspected cause of the Burger King restaurant explosion in Yerevan’s Northern Avenue is the blast of a pressure oxygen cylinder of draught beer keg.
The preliminary cause was announced by Davit Tonoyan, minister of emergency situations of Armenia, who personally visited the scene of the blast. The minister went inside the restaurant and viewed the area.
The minister didn’t mention other details of the probable cause, adding that investigators and technical security experts are looking into it. “There can be different causes – pressure fluctuations, high pressure etc. It isn’t appropriate to speak about any culprit at this moment”, he said.
Emergency personnel were notified on the blast at 20:44, April 2. Multiple firefighting units, paramedics and law enforcement officers were dispatched to the restaurant in Yerevan’s Northern Avenue.
