At Least 14 Die in Blast at Yemeni Arms Mart

An explosion in a rural weapons market in Yemen killed at least 14 people and injured at least 15 on Saturday, reporters at the scene said. Hospital officials said the death toll could be as high as 32.

The explosion occurred about 2 p.m. in the remote village of Al Suwaida, about 120 miles southeast of the capital, Sana, said Walid Saqqaf, editor of the weekly Yemen Times, which sent reporters to the site of the blast. A security official quoted by Yemen’s Saba news agency said the explosion occurred in a building where dynamite was stored.

Guns, gunpowder and other explosives are sold freely at markets in Yemen, a largely tribal society where weapons are carried openly.

An Interior Ministry official said rescuers were sifting through rubble for victims believed to be trapped.

Journalists said the ill-equipped search teams would have difficulty moving the rubble because the impoverished Arab state does not have the necessary resources for such rescue operations.

The explosion destroyed several warehouses and stores.

“The blast was deafening and shook the whole city,” a witness said.

Ambulances rushed to the scene to take the injured to the hospital.

Saba quoted a security official as saying that 15 people were killed and 16 were injured in the explosion. The official was not identified.

Hospital officials said the death toll had reached 32. About 50 people were injured and taken to the local hospital, they said.

Saqqaf said that authorities were investigating the explosion as a probable accident but that a truck nearby had been gutted, leading to suspicion that it carried explosives.