Blast at Chinese ammunition depot kills 17 soldiers

USPA News - Seventeen soldiers were killed on late Tuesday afternoon when an accidental explosion tore through an ammunition depot in south-central China, state-run media reported on Wednesday, but few other details were immediately disclosed. The accident occurred at around 4:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday at an arsenal in Hengyang, the second-largest city in the country`s Hunan Province.

It happened when service members were piling up ammunitions at the site, the state-run Xinhua news agency said in a brief report. There were no reports of civilian casualties in the explosion, which was described only as an "accident." China has the world`s largest military force with a strength of approximately 2.2 million service members, but the military operates with a high degree of secrecy and few details about accidents are released. The government also controls information about terrorism-related incidents and plane crashes.