HALO Trust's vehicle blown up in Karabakh by accident - Stepanakert
YEREVAN. March 29 (Interfax) - A vehicle of the international demining organization The HALO Trust hit a mine in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) by accident, NKR Emergency Service spokesman Armen Narimanyan told Interfax.
"The incident happened during demining operations. It was an accident. This has never happened to the organization before," Narimanyan said.
The blast occurred "deep in the rear, near the village of Kazanchi in the Martakert district," he said.
The HALO Trust told Interfax that the vehicle hit a mine on Thursday morning. "Three employees of the organization were killed, and two suffered injuries. They were inside the vehicle on a reconnaissance mission when the incident happened. The injured were taken to a hospital," a representative of the organization said.
All of them were residents of the unrecognized NKR, a representative of The HALO Trust's office in Stepanakert told Interfax.
According to publicly available information, The HALO Trust is a non-profit charity registered in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its mission is to neutralize mines and unexploded ordnance.