According to local Armenian authorities, a gasoline storage explosion in Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in the deaths of 20 persons and the injuries of hundreds more.
Numerous patients who were “still in critical condition” were among the over 300 persons who were admitted to hospitals.
It occurs after the Armenian government reported that 13,350 refugees from the enclave had entered the nation.
Around 120,000 ethnic Armenians live in the Azerbaijani territory at issue.
The explosion that occurred on Monday night close to Khankendi, often known as Stepanakert to Armenians, is still under investigation.
As thousands attempted to flee the area, which was already experiencing a fuel shortage due to a months-long siege, gas stations were inundated.
Local authorities stated in a statement on Tuesday that seven more people died in the hospital and 13 unidentified bodies were discovered near the blast site.
They said that 290 victims with varied degrees of burns were being treated by doctors while they labored in “difficult and confined conditions” to save lives.
Gegham Stepanyan, the Human Rights Ombudsman, stated on social media that the majority of people had serious or really severe health conditions. There are insufficient medical resources in Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to the Armenian health ministry, patients from the overcrowded hospitals in the area are being evacuated by helicopter. In addition, Azerbaijan claimed to have delivered medical supplies.
Thousands of people have left the region since Azerbaijan seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh last week as a result of the Armenian government in Yerevan announcing intentions to relocate those made homeless by the war.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia, ethnic cleansing is “under way” in the area.
“That’s happening right now, and that is [a] very unfortunate fact,” Nikol Pashinyan said to reporters, “because we were trying to urge the international community on that.”
However, Azerbaijan has said that it intends to reintegrate the ethnic Armenians as “equal citizens”.
In order to defend the rights of the population in Nagorno-Karabakh, Samantha Power, the director of the US Agency for International Development, urged Azerbaijan to “maintain the ceasefire and take concrete action.”
The BBC has spoken with some of the migrants who landed in Goris, an Armenian city on the Karabakh border, on Sunday.
One man remarked, “I gave my whole life to my country.” He declared, “If they murdered me, that would be better than this.
For the second time, Veronica, a woman, admitted to the BBC that she was a refugee. During the conflict in 2020, the initial event took place.
Numerous automobiles and buses carrying ethnic Armenians seeking to evacuate are backed up on the only road leading from Armenia to the enclave.
On Tuesday, representatives from Armenia and Azerbaijan are scheduled to meet in Brussels for negotiations endorsed by the EU.
Since Azerbaijan took the enclave last week, this will be the first time that official negotiations have taken place between the two nations.
Their national security advisers will represent the two sides.
Additionally, Azerbaijan has begun discussions with Karabakh’s ethnic-Armenian authorities about the future of the territory.
Although Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the South Caucasus, is officially recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan, it has been ruled by ethnic Armenians for the past 30 years.
Armenia has supported the enclave, as has its partner Russia, which has been stationed there on a peacekeeping mission for the past three years.
As Azerbaijan’s army rushed in last week, five Russian peacekeepers perished along with at least 200 ethnic Armenians and scores of Azerbaijani soldiers.
The defense ministry of Azerbaijan announced on Sunday that it has seized further military hardware, including a sizable quantity of rockets, artillery shells, explosives, and ammunition.
Despite official pledges from Azerbaijan, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh are still under threat; only one assistance shipment of 70 tonnes of food has been permitted through since separatists agreed to a truce and disarm.
Another aid convoy with 40 tonnes of bread and urgently required sanitary supplies was on its way to the enclave, according to an announcement from Azerbaijan.
Leaders of the ethnic Armenian community claim that thousands are sleeping in basements, schools, or the open without access to food or shelter.