Blast in Downtown Yerevan Restaurant: Eight Injured

YEREVAN — Eight people, including foreign citizens, have been injured in an oxygen cylinder explosion that occurred on Monday evening in Burger King restaurant on the Northern Avenue in the center of Yerevan. The injured have been taken to Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center.

A spokesman for Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center said they admitted eight people, seven of them minors. One of them is in grave condition.

“On April 2, at 20.44 local time (19.44 Moscow time), we received a signal that there was an explosion on the Northern Avenue in Yerevan; there are victims, and they need assistance,” the Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement.

Later in the day, the Ministry published the list of those injured in the explosion: Rudolf Markosyan,6; Rubina Markosyan, 8; Zaruhi Melikyan, 19; Eric Ashughian, 24 (citizen of Iran); Alyona Agapova, 15 (citizen of Russia); Liza Abrahamova, 15 (citizen of Russia); Yaroslav Lyubenko, 15 (citizen of Russia) and Zeina Husseini, 24 (citizen of Iran).

The Burger King restaurant was opened in Yerevan about two months ago.

Yerevan police rule out foul play in the Northern Avenue explosion. “I will rule out the deliberate option now, because law enforcement agencies are working and according to preliminary information the pressure cylinder of Draught beer exploded, and also what was obvious inside and also proven by eyewitness accounts, but there are preliminary information. There are victims who are currently being treated,” Ashot Aharonyan – head of the press service of the Police Force said, adding that presumably people suffered injuries due to fragmentary pieces as result of the blast.