:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/J4JQV5IRKMKCA3HPSKE26RK5WU.jpg)
A mortar explosion at a US army munitions depot in Nevada killed seven marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and injured eight other service members during a live-fire training exercise, US military officials said last night.
A Marine Corps official said a 60mm mortar round exploded prematurely during training at the Hawthorne Army Depot in western Nevada.
The cause was under investigation.
"The Marines were conducting live fire and maneuver training at the Hawthorne Army depot," Brigadier General Jim Lukeman told a news conference in North Carolina.
“A mortar round exploded in the mortar tube, causing the deaths of seven. ... We don't know yet what caused this malfunction.”
The blast was among the deadliest such training accidents on US soil in recent years. In February 2012, seven marines were killed when two helicopters collided during an exercise along the California -Arizona border.
The marines killed had been undergoing training for the past month at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, and at Hawthorne.
“This type of training is really the type of training that we do to be able to be that force of readiness. It is what's required of our nation's military, to do the things this nation asks us to do,” Brig Gen Lukeman said, adding the training was not linked to preparations for a specific impending deployment.
The marines ordered a suspension of the use of 60mm mortars pending a review after the blast, Marine Corps spokeswoman Captain Kendra Motz said in a statement.
The blast victims were airlifted to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno with injuries that included penetration trauma, fractures and vascular injuries, said Stacy Kendall, a spokeswoman for the medical center.
Seven marines and a navy sailor were wounded.
Of those, six were in serious or very serious condition, including the sailor, while a seventh suffered minor injuries and an eighth was treated and released, the marines said in a statement.
Reuters