Google Earth pictures of Kagan, Bukhara
Earlier, I wrote about the explosions in ammunition storage in Kagan town that is located in 12 km from Bukhara city. The explosions were the result of a fire in the ammunition storage, which originally used to be an ammunition storage for shells and warheads for Soviet military operations Afghanistan. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, the ammunition supplies were left in Uzbekistan.
Officials stated 3 people were killed and 21 injured. However, eyewitnesses say that the real numbers are way more than that. Bukhara hospitals are full of people injured during the explosions. All residents of Kagan were evacuated to Bukhara, as there was a potential threat of yet unexploded shells, warheads and bombs in the area. Recent news say that evacuated residents of Kagan are getting back to their homes [ru] and the city has returned to its normal life again
Here are the Google Earth photos of Kagan and the ammunition storage in its suburbs. The database of Google Earth pictures is old, as of last winter, it seems.
I will be checking for updates in the Google Earth and whenever they come, I will put both old and new pictures of Kagan, so that readers can see the damage and changes caused by explosions.
on July 25th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I was a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Bukhoro 1995-1998, and I remember Kogon very well as that is where the train station was. It was a sleepy town outside of the city proper with some lovely old houses dating from a much earlier time when the railway was first put in place. The train station itself was an imposing structure, and there were some pleasing gardens surrounding the complex. It’s sad that the Uzbek government won’t allow full coverage so we really can’t know the full extent of the damage. I also knew some people in Kogon, including several of my former students, and I haven’t heard anything about them. Probably I never will…