BBC:
Nineteen people are missing after a blast at a military explosives manufacturing facility in Tennessee on Friday.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said four or five people were taken to a nearby hospital after the enormous explosion that levelled a factory, and that several are deceased.
“There’s nothing to describe, it’s gone,” he said.
The plant in Bucksnort, Tennessee – roughly 56 miles (90km) south west of Nashville – specialises in the development, manufacture, handling and storage of explosives. The cause of the blast remains unclear.
Aerial video from the scene showed charred debris, smouldering vehicles and little remaining of the facility, which is owned by Accurate Energetic Systems.
Sheriff Davis, who was visibly emotional during his first media briefing of the day, declined to say exactly how many people died.
But he noted that the plant had been up and running when the explosion happened and that secondary blasts forced first responders to keep their distance from the site.
Workers who had just started their day “now may be missing or deceased”.
“A lot of times, when I have these types of situations, I refer to them more than just a person…we’re missing 19 souls,” Davis said.
During a second briefing hours later, Davis confirmed that 19 people were still unaccounted for and that the explosion happened in a large building. It flung debris across a half square mile, he added.
“This was a massive enough explosion that I can tell you that folks in Waverly felt and heard this explosion,” he said, referring to a town about 15.5 miles (25km) north west of the facility.
Davis declined to answer whether he believed the explosion was accidental or intentional, saying that “we have to make the worst assumption in order to find the truth”.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in a social media post said his office was monitoring the ongoing situation, and referred to it as a “tragic incident”. State and local authorities were working with federal agencies to respond to the explosion.
