Putin contacts regional officials, ministers following Samara tragedy

On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin held an intercom conference with the Samara regional governor, Nikolai Merkushkin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Head of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova who reported to the president what measures were taken to help the people who suffered from the explosions at an ammunition depot on the outskirts of the town of Chapayevsk in the Samara region on Tuesday. Putin has instructed the Samara regional governor to assess a degree of damages, the blasts caused to the residents of the adjoining territory, and ask the government for possible financial support to the victims. A total of 48 people asked for medical help after a series of artillery shells explosions in the Samara region; eleven were hospitalized, the latest reports said. The reports did not say whether anyone was killed in the incident. The explosions went off one after another in an open area of the Privolzhskiy ammunition test range near the town of Chapayevsk in the Samara region late on Tuesday. About 18 million shells were stored at the ammunition depots on the test range. A criminal case has been opened on charges of violation of safety precaution rules on military test sites.