Posted September 27, 2017 17:02:26

Photo: The warehouse was storing ammunition for multiple rocket launcher systems. (Reuters: Yurii Basiuk)

Massive explosions and a blaze at a military ammunition depot in central Ukraine have forced authorities to evacuate 24,000 people and close airspace over the region, officials have said.

The blasts occurred late on Tuesday local time at a military base near Kalynivka in the Vynnytsya region, 270 kilometres west of Kiev, Ukrainian emergencies service said in a statement.

One person was injured, it said.

The military said rescue teams were evacuating nearby villages in the region.

Arriving in the region hours later, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said "external factors" were behind the incident.

Social media users reported hearing loud explosions as far away as the capital Kiev.

Local media said the explosion was the fourth ammunition depot explosion in the past two years.

Photo: Smoke and flames rise over the military base. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)

Reuters

Topics: disasters-and-accidents, fires, defence-and-national-security, ukraine