Seychelles on Thursday lifted a state of emergency declared earlier in the day after a huge blast at an explosives depot, which injured 66 people, the president said.
"As of now, the country is no longer in a state of emergency, which means that the shops can re-open and that normal movement of the public can resume, with the exception of the Providence industrial area" where the blast occurred, President Wavel Ramkalawan told reporters.
The blast rocked the industrial area of Providence, around seven kilometers (4.3 miles) southeast of the capital, Victoria, on Seychelles' main island of Mahe. It destroyed buildings and flattened trees in the vicinity.
National TV showed people at hospitals and clinics bloodied with injuries after the blast. No deaths were reported from the explosion.
Heavy rain
The blast happened around 02:00 local time on Thursday and followed heavy rain and flooding late Wednesday night, which mostly hit the northern part of Mahe.
Houses were flooded, parts of roads were washed away, and the water caused landslides in some areas.
Two of the people who died in the flooding were trapped in their home, authorities said.
President Ramkalawan had announced the state of emergency in a statement, ordering schools to close and people to stay at home in the nation of just over 100,000 people to give emergency services and other essential workers the space to do their jobs.
'Massive damage'
Emergency services were on the scene of the explosion.
The blast caused "massive damage" and the floods caused “major destruction,” the statement from the president's office said.
Seychelles is a major tourist destination and is an archipelago off the east coast of Africa. It is the continent's smallest country by area and population.
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