Penza, 13 April 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza rescue service has prevented an environment disaster in the Bashmakovo area of the Penza region after they removed 12 1-ton bags with ammonia nitrate from Ushinka river, the press service of the regional Department of Communal Affairs and Public Civil Security informed PenzaNews in the evening of Wednesday, April 13.

Photo: Zhkh.pnzreg.ru

The incident took place only recently, they clarified.

“At 11.15, the rescue service received a message from the Penza region emergency crisis management center that a car fell in Ushinka river in Sosnovka village of the Bashmakovo area after the bridge that explicitly was not designed for heavy loads broke down; as a result, 12 bags with ammonia nitrate ended up in the river,” the department explained.

The rescuers first managed to extract seven of the twelve bags which floated in the water, and a five-member diving team arrived shortly after to remove the five bags that went down to the river bed, the department added.

“They bound the remaining ammonia nitrate bags that were in the water. The bags were lifted by a crane and moved away for storage. The bags were not deformed and their contents did not escape into the water; nobody was injured,” they stressed.