Loud Blast Rocks Skopje Suburb

The explosion occurred when an employee began preparing a large piece of scrap metal for melting in one of the furnaces, Nove Georgievski, the deputy Director of Maksteel, one of the companies operating in the complex, told local media.

The blast, which could be heard in many parts of the city, occurred around 7:55am.

“It is not a plane; that possibility has been excluded,” Georgievski said, commenting on some eyewitness accounts of what passers-by thought was an unmanned plane exploding in mid-air before falling to the ground.

So far it is unclear what the large metal part or device was that was seen rocketing from the blast before exploding. The object landed some three kilometres from the site of the blast and the authorities suspect it might have contained gas or some other fuel that caused it to be thrust into the air.

“Macedonian police teams are currently present at the site,” police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told Balkan Insight. He was not specific about what caused the explosion.

Previously Macedonian army officials denied any loss of aircraft.