Bulgaria fireworks depot explosions toll rises to four

Sofia, Bulgaria: The toll from a series of explosions at a fireworks depot near Bulgaria's capital Sofia rose to four on Sunday as investigators recovered two more bodies from the site.

They are believed to be the 22-year-old son of the owner and a 60-year-old employee, who had been missing since the series of blasts at six warehouses near the small town of Elin Pelin, just outside Sofia, on Thursday evening.

Since then, authorities had been scrambling for information on the exact number of people inside the warehouses at the time of the explosions.

"Two burnt bodies were found at the site of the accident, presumably of the two men, who were known to have been in the warehouses when the accident occurred," the public prosecutor's office announced after entering the site for the first time on Sunday.

It said the bodies were yet to be identified.

The deaths of a 49-year-old pyrotechnics expert at the company and his 20-year-old daughter, who had been receiving hospital treatment for severe burns and smoke inhalation, had previously been reported.

A night guard and a young man, who was also there, had managed to escape unscathed.

Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov told journalists earlier on Sunday that explosive experts had entered the area and secured one warehouse that had not been affected by the explosions.

The fortified building contains large stocks of professional pyrotechnics and fears that it might explode had prompted the authorities to set off an alert and order the partial evacuation of a nearby village.

The 150 people who had to leave their homes on Thursday night were allowed to return on Friday.