PYAY—A 35-year-old woman was injured when a piece of a weapon from Magwe Airbase accidentally hit a warehouse in Sar Taing Kan Village, Magwe Township, Magwe Region on Tuesday morning.
“I heard an explosion around 7:30 a.m. while I was at a teashop. It was loud and I noticed the vibration. I was shocked when I learned that the explosion came from the weapon,” local resident U Tin Shwe told The Irrawaddy.
“U Poe Ni, the owner of the warehouse, told me that the air force was installing a weapon and it slipped and accidentally hit the warehouse roof. The whole village went into a panic after they heard the loud explosion,” he added.
The chief of the Magwe Township Police, Police Major Myint Lwin, confirmed the incident to The Irrawaddy but declined to provide details over the phone.
A source close to the warehouse owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that officials at the airbase sent the injured woman to the hospital and are covering her medical expenses and providing some compensation.
“The son of the warehouse owner said around 15 to 20 officials wearing air force uniforms came and said they would repair all the damages. They covered medical costs and compensation for the injured woman. I don’t know how much money they gave,” said the source.
Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, secretary of the Myanmar military’s Tatmadaw True News Information Team, told The Irrawaddy that he was not informed about the incident.
A young girl in fifth grade and two pilots in Magwe Region’s Minbu Township were killed in October 2018 when a pair of military planes crashed during a training exercise. The girl, who lived in an urban ward of Minbu, was struck and killed by debris from one of the planes.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
