Listen to the article
An explosion at the two-storey Indenim shopping centre in Denau, Surkhandarya region, damaged 226 properties with a combined assessed value of 22.6 billion soums, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) said on Saturday. Two people were killed and nine others sustained injuries of varying severity in the blast, which occurred at around 04:00 on 7 December.
Colonel Ulmas Muzaffarov, head of the State Fire Control Department of the MES, disclosed the figures at an Agency for Information and Mass Communications briefing on 8 January. He said the affected properties comprised 140 households — broken down as 76 private houses and 64 apartments across five multi-storey buildings — along with 86 non-residential buildings.
Of the 226 structures, 25 have been declared unfit for use: 13 residential and 12 non-residential. The damage to the Indenim complex itself has been valued separately at 14.4 billion soums, while total losses across all real estate objects reach 22.6 billion soums. Muzaffarov said the figures were calculated by independent appraisal organisations.
Residents relocated, repairs begun
The owners of the 13 residential buildings declared uninhabitable by a Government Commission have already been relocated, Muzaffarov said. Contractors have been assigned to each household and construction and installation work is under way.
Repair work is also proceeding on 69 residential buildings that sustained damage but were not condemned — covering 64 private houses and five apartments in multi-storey blocks. Entrepreneurs are simultaneously carrying out repair and construction work on 60 non-residential buildings. Compensation arrangements are being coordinated by the Surkhandarya regional administration, he added.
The December blast brought down sections of nearby buildings and triggered a large fire that emergency services worked to contain in the early morning hours.