Mozambique Weapons Depot Blast Kills 83

Police officers inspect artillery shells Friday, March 23, 2007 after an explosion Thursday night at a weapons depot in Maputo, Mozambique. The death toll from a fire and explosion at a weapons depot near the capital's airport is at least 72 and is likely to rise further as more bodies are recovered from the charred remains of houses, the health minister said Friday. Ivo Garrido said that at least 300 people were injured, many of them children. (AP Photo/Ferhat Momade) (Ferhat Momade - AP)

MAPUTO, Mozambique -- The death toll from an explosion at a weapons depot in a densely populated neighborhood rose to 83 Friday and could climb higher, the health minister said. At least 300 injured were injured by the blast.

Health Minister Ivo Garrido said the casualties included military personnel working on the site and civilians _ many of them children _ living in a poor neighborhood nearby in the capital.

Thousands of people spent the night on the streets, forced out of their homes by Thursday's explosion, which sent accidentally detonated rockets raining down on residential areas.

President Armando Guebuza toured the devastated area, which remained closed to residents, and visited hospitalized victims. He promised to find a safer site for the armory.

"We mourn what is happening," said Guebuza, who canceled a planned visit to South Africa and called an emergency cabinet meeting.

The defense ministry said hot weather may have been to blame for the blast at the dilapidated and badly maintained depot, built by the Soviet Union in 1984. The southern part of Mozambique, which includes Maputo, is suffering a heat wave and drought, and the temperature was 93 degrees before the explosion.

Three people were injured at the depot in a January explosion and fire, which authorities also blamed on the heat.

The interior ministry ordered police and firefighters to help the military destroy all remaining ammunition at the depot, which was stocked with obsolete Soviet-made weapons from Mozambique's long civil war.

The ministry also ordered police reinforcements to stop looters from ransacking houses abandoned by their owners because of the inferno.

South Africa is to send a team of experts to Maputo this weekend to help determine the cause of the explosion.

Hundreds of people gathered at the hospital, waiting for news of loved ones. Authorities said many children had been separated from their parents in the chaos that engulfed the port city at the height of the explosions.

Joao Temba, 9, said his parents were at work in Maputo's city center and he had not been able to find them.

"I don't know where they are. I don't know what is happening," he said.

Mozambique, which is impoverished and still recovering from a long civil war, has been battered by natural disasters this year. Heavy rains have inundated much of the country since January, causing flooding and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

A cyclone hit coastal resorts last month, killing 12 people and battering the nation's fledgling tourist industry. More homes on the coast were evacuated this week, and sea defenses breached by exceptionally high tides.