Huge blast at Moscow area factory adds to Russian jitters

The Zagorsk plant explosion blew out windows in nearby apartment buildings

An explosion Wednesday on the grounds a factory north of Moscow that makes optical equipment for Russia’s security forces injured 45 people, six of them severely, officials said.

The blast occurred at a warehouse storing fireworks, though it was on the grounds of the Zagorsk optics manufacturing plant, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital.

Vorobyov said the company had rented out the warehouse for storage, but later claimed the plant itself was mostly producing pyrotechnics. He said the facility “has had nothing to do with optics or mechanics for a long time,” even though the company’s website says it still manufactures those products, as well as medical apparatus.

Whatever the cause, the explosion produced a tall plume of black smoke and added to Russian jitters over nighttime drone attacks on Moscow, as well as alarm about smoke over the port of Sevastopol in Crimea on Wednesday.