This seize taken from video distributed by Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, exhibits smoke rising after a gas depot explosion close to Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account by way of AP

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Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account by way of AP

This seize taken from video distributed by Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, exhibits smoke rising after a gas depot explosion close to Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account by way of AP

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Separatist authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh stated Tuesday that not less than 20 individuals have been killed and practically 300 others injured by an explosion at a crowded fuel station as 1000’s of individuals rushed to cross into Armenia.

More than 13,500 individuals — about 12% of the area’s inhabitants — have fled throughout the border since Azerbaijan’s swift army operation to completely reclaim the area after three a long time of separatist rule, Armenia’s authorities stated Tuesday morning.

The explosion befell as individuals lined as much as fill their vehicles at a fuel station exterior the regional capital of Stepanakert late Monday. The separatist authorities’s well being division stated that 13 our bodies have been discovered and 7 individuals have died of accidents from the blast, the reason for which stays unclear.

It added that 290 individuals have been hospitalized and scores of them stay in grave situation.

The Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz final week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to put down weapons and begin talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.

While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians within the area and restore provides after a 10-month blockade, many native residents feared reprisals and determined to depart. Azerbaijan’s blockade of the one street connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia brought on extreme shortages of meals, medication and gas within the area.

Moscow stated that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh have been aiding the evacuation. Some 700 individuals remained within the peacekeepers’ camp there by Monday night time.

Nagorno-Karabakh got here beneath the management of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian army, in separatist preventing that led to 1994. During the warfare in 2020, Azerbaijan took again components of Nagorno-Karabakh together with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed through the earlier battle.

Under the armistice that ended the 2020 preventing, Russia deployed a peacekeeping power of about 2,000 to the area. But Armenian officers and regional authorities complained that the peacekeepers have been unwilling or unable to finish the blockade.