The check into the causes of the blasts in the army warehouse on July 3, which caused panic and damages around Sofia, are expected on July 7 2008, Defence Minister Nikolai Tsonev told a news conference on the same day.

The probe was ordered by the ministry and will have to show what really happened at the warehouse full of army shells and cartridges.

However, investigators are still to enter the site, Tsonev said. To avoid any possible incidents the army has decided to flood the warehouse, Tsonev said. Aircraft will pour about 1000 tons of water over it starting at 10am.

The Defence Ministry will compensate people for the damages caused, Tsonev said. “As soon as they have their papers ready, we will compensate them,” he said. Teams of experts started assessing the damages on July 4. Farmers will also get compensations, he noted.

At the same media conference, it emerged that prosecutors launched a pre-trial investigation against the army commander of the warehouse for embezzlement in May 2008. The State Agency for National Security has also joined the investigation, military prosecutor Spas Iliev said, as qouted by Bulgarian news agency Focus.

The investigation did not refer to safety issues at the warehouse, he said.

A day after the explosions, it was announced that the warehouse, owned by the army, was put up for privatisation. Iliev said that he saw nothing peculiar that the warehouse blew up days before the end of the privatisation procedure. Tsonev, on the other hand, said that the warehouse had an insurance policy, but did not say for how much money it was insured for.