Casualties as 'biggest ammunition depot' in Chad's N'Djamena catches fire

A massive fire has erupted at a huge military ammunition depot in Chad's capital N'Djamena, the government said without detailing the cause.

Blasts from the depot in the capital's Goudji area near the airport were heard miles away on early on Wednesday, the AFP news agency journalists said, adding that projectiles went into the sky at regular intervals and detonated, turning it red and black.

Explosions could still be heard more than an hour and a half after the initial blasts.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno later said there were deaths.

Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah, who is also the government spokesperson, said on Facebook that there were "huge explosions" at the site and urged the population to keep calm.

A senior army official, who requested anonymity, told AFP the "biggest ammunition depot in N'Djamena has caught fire".

All calibres exploded

There are multiple homes in the neighbourhood hosting the depot, which sits near the international airport and a base where French troops are stationed.

The blaze "caused explosions of ammunition of all calibres", an official with the French forces told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A resident of a neighbourhood near the depot said he saw three wounded people on the street, two of which were rushed to hospital on motorbikes.

Media posted images of spent artillery shells that fell in people's homes. Another resident said his neighbour, a shopkeeper, was killed after a shell hit him.

"Loud blasts woke us up," resident Moustapha Adoum Mahamat told Reuters via telephone.

"Our house was shaking as if someone were shooting at us. Then we saw a big fire at the military camp and smoke and things exploding in the air," he said. "We could see artillery fly over us."

A Reuters news agency witness saw flames and heard explosions for about an hour and said smoke was spreading around the city.