Evangelos Florakis Navy Base explosion
The crater produced by the explosion, photographed in 2013
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| Native name | Έκρηξη στη ναυτική βάση «Ευάγγελος Φλωράκης» |
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| Date | 11 July 2011 |
| Time | 05:50 EEST |
| Location | Zygi, Cyprus |
| Coordinates | 34°43′41″N 33°17′08″E / 34.7281°N 33.2855°ECoordinates: 34°43′41″N 33°17′08″E / 34.7281°N 33.2855°E |
| Type | Accidental explosion |
| Deaths | 13 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 62 |
The Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion was the worst peacetime military accident ever recorded in Cyprus. The incident occurred on 11 July 2011, when 98 containers of explosives that had been stored for 21⁄2 years in the sun on the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base near Zygi self-detonated. It is ranked as the fifth largest non-nuclear human-induced explosion in history with a yield of approximately 2 to 3.2 kilotons.
The resulting explosion killed 13 people, 12 of them immediately, including Captain Andreas Ioannides, the Commander of the Navy (Cyprus's most senior naval officer), and the base commander, Lambros Lambrou. Also killed were four navy personnel and six firefighters, while a further 62 people were injured. The explosion severely damaged hundreds of nearby buildings including all of the buildings in Zygi and the island's largest power station, responsible for supplying over half of Cyprus' electricity. As a result, much of Cyprus was without power in the immediate aftermath of the incident and rolling blackouts were initiated in order to conserve supplies.
As a result of the incident, the Cypriot Defence Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the Cypriot National Guard both resigned. Angered by the government's failure to dispose of the munitions, which had been seized in 2009, several thousand citizens staged demonstrations in the capital Nicosia and other cities, every day in the week following the accident. The EU prognosticated that the cost of the explosion could be just over 10% of the country's economy.
The Evangelos Florakis Navy Base is a Cyprus Navy base, situated near Zygi, between Limassol and Larnaca.
In open storage on the base were 98 containers of 120 mm, 122 mm, 125 mm, and 160 mm high explosive artillery shells, 7.62 mm shell casings, compressed gunpowder, silver dollar-sized slugs, primers, and magnesium primers that had been seized by the United States Navy in 2009 after it intercepted a Cypriot-flagged, Russian-owned vessel, Monchegorsk, travelling from Iran to Syria in the Red Sea. According to leaked US cables through , released in 2011, the US through Hillary Clinton exerted pressure on Cyprus to confiscate the shipment. The ship was escorted to a Cypriot port and the Cyprus Navy was given responsibility for the explosives, which it moved to the Evangelos Florakis a month later. At the time of the incident in 2011, the explosives had apparently been left in the open for over two years. The Cypriot government had declined offers from Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States to remove or dispose of the material, fearing an adverse reaction from Syria. The government had instead requested that the UN effect the removal, but claimed that its request had been rejected.
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Wikipedia