"Today at 5.15 pm (1315 GMT) ... an uncontrolled explosion occurred as ammunition was being transferred from a tank into a vehicle" near the town of Shali, a defence ministry statement was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, two Russians were killed in western Russia when artillery shells exploded as they were being stolen from an army base for sale as scrap metal, Russian media reported.

"Two residents of the village of Ilinogorsk stole 49 artillery shells from the Mulinsky military garrison with the aim of selling them for scrap," Interfax news agency quoted prosecutors as saying in a statement.

"When they tried to unload the artillery shells ... [at a scrapyard], one of the shells exploded.

"A welder and a resident of Ilinogorsk were killed."

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