Fumes from smoke bombs used in a military training exercise in the port of Bourgas have enveloped the centre of the city on the morning of July 15, causing panic among local residents, Dnevnik daily reported.

The smoke, which made breathing difficult, and the lack of any information as to what was happening helped spread the feeling of panic, while confused foreign tourists have swamped hotel lobbies, Dnevnik said.

For an hour, there was no explanation offered, but in the end it turned out that the two smoke bombs were used to simulated a ship fire as part of the Breeze international navy training exercise in the port of Bourgas.

The miscommunication between institutions, reminiscent of the same confusion that followed the blasts in a munitions warehouse near Sofia on July 3, had officials pointing blaming fingers at each other throughout the day, website mediapool.bg reported.

Mayor Dimitar Nikolov said, as quoted by the website, that local authorities should have been notified of the details of the military excercise. The Defence Ministry hit back saying that all necessary information had been communicated to the city hall in full and on time.

The head of the Bourgas region civil protection service, Yordan Lozev, quoted by Dnevnik, said that Bourgas residents were aware of the training exercise and should have been prepared for situations like the one on July 15.