BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in a huge explosion at an ammunition depot in southern Baghdad on Monday, a medical source said.

"The powerful explosion in southern Baghdad killed one person and wounded 29 others," Sayf al-Badr, spokesman of Iraqi health Ministry said in a statement.

Al-Badr said earlier that some of the wounded people were admitted to al-Yarmouk and al-Mahmoudiyah hospitals, some 30 km south of Baghdad.

He added that most of the wounded people suffered minor injuries and some of them have already left the hospitals.

Al-Badr did not give further details about any casualty among the security forces inside the military base.

However, a source from Interior Ministry told Xinhua that no deaths among the security forces inside the base, but many suffered from slight injuries and burns.

Earlier, the source told Xinhua that an ammunition depot exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura.

The blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse that sent a large amount of shrapnel to nearby houses, the source said, adding that fire engines and civil defense forces rushed to the scene to extinguish the fires in and around the scene.

The huge blast resulted in the wounding of several civilians and caused damage to the buildings, the source said.

The blast was heard in several neighborhoods in southern Baghdad and a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising in southern the city.

There is no immediate report about casualties among the security forces inside the base, the source added. Enditem

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