NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus launched a criminal investigation Tuesday into the cause of a massive blast at a munitions dump which killed 12 people and destroyed the island's largest power station.
The decision was taken on the advice of the attorney-general, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said in a statement.
Though not specified in the statement, it was believed inquiries would focus on possible negligence. Authorities said Monday, some hours after the blast at a military base on the south coast, that early inquiries had ruled out sabotage.
Relatives of victims and official documents said army officers were concerned at the storage of a dangerous cargo of munitions which blew up in the base Monday morning. Warnings by officers at the base, including the navy commander who was killed in the blast, went unheeded, say relatives.
The explosives, packed in 98 containers, were exposed to scorching temperatures at the Evangelos Florakis navy base. They had been confiscated from a ship sailing from Iran to Syria in 2009 for violating U.N. sanctions on Iran.
(Writing by Michele Kambas, editing by Tim Pearce)
