An explosion and fire struck an ammunition-storage facility belonging to Bulgarian arms manufacturer EMCO early Saturday, marking the second incident at one of the company’s sites in just over a month.
The fire broke out near the village of Tsareva Livada in central Bulgaria and spread through the storage complex, producing several explosions that illuminated the night sky. Authorities said the situation had been brought under control and no injuries were reported.
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said investigators would examine possible links with previous fires at EMCO facilities, including an explosion at another depot near Belitsa on August 10.
“We are not ruling out outside interference,” Demerdzhiev said, while stressing that the cause had not yet been established. Bulgarian President Iliyana Yotova is considering convening the country’s Consultative Council on National Security following the latest incident, according to Bulgarian National Television.
EMCO is a major Bulgarian arms manufacturer and exporter that has supplied weapons and ammunition to Ukraine and Georgia. Its owner, Emilian Gebrev, survived a suspected poisoning operation in Bulgaria in 2015, together with his son and a company executive.
Bulgarian prosecutors subsequently charged three Russian nationals in absentia over the attempted murders. One of them was Denis Sergeev, a senior officer in Russia’s GRU military intelligence service who travelled under the alias Sergey Fedotov. Investigative reporting has identified Sergeev as a suspected coordinator of both the operation targeting Gebrev and the 2018 Novichok attack against former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, Britain.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived the Salisbury poisoning. British citizen Dawn Sturgess later died after coming into contact with Novichok contained in a discarded counterfeit perfume bottle used by the GRU team. A British public inquiry concluded that Sergeev and the two other agents involved bore moral responsibility for her death.
In 2024, Bulgaria issued arrest warrants for six Russian citizens accused of involvement in explosions at arms depots storing ammunition intended for Ukraine and Georgia between 2011 and 2020. Moscow has denied involvement in the poisonings and depot explosions.
Saturday’s incident remains under investigation, and Bulgarian authorities have not attributed it to Russia or any other foreign actor. Reuters reported that investigators are examining possible sabotage and similarities with earlier incidents.
