An army weapons warehouse was rocked by huge explosions Thursday, killing one person and injuring at least 80 others, after a truck overturned and set the stores ablaze, officials said.
Dozens of blasts, which continued to erupt more than five hours after the initial explosion, shook the complex shooting out fire balls and casting plumes of black smoke into the sky, the government said.
Interior Minister Purachai Piemsombun said he had ordered a 20-kilometre (12-mile) exclusion zone around the site in Nakhon Ratchasima province as it was still too dangerous for emergency crews to approach.
Thousands of people were evacuated from the nearby town of Pak Chong.
Reporters stopped at roadblocks some five kilometres (three miles) from the 50-warehouse complex, one of the country's largest army ammunition facilities, could feel the ground shaking from the force of the explosions.
Purachai said the blasts were believed to have been set off in a truck accident during unloading at the site, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra also ruled out sabotage.
"It's an accident, it's an internal incident," Thaksin told reporters after the initial explosion which occurred around 9:30 am (0230 GMT).
A spokeswoman for Pak Chong Nana hospital said army officers and villagers were among the 80 injured, who were mostly being treated for cuts and burns suffered on the perimeter of the powerful explosion.
Two seriously injured people were transferred to larger hospitals, and the one person confirmed dead was a 70-year-old man believed to have suffered a heart attack, she told AFP.
Piemsombun said however in a radio interview from a helicopter taking him to the region that the death toll remained unconfirmed.
The complex is located on a hill in Pak Chong district in the province's northwest, 180 kilometres (111 miles) northeast of Bangkok.
Few people live in the area, but army homes are located within the complex. A village also lies near the site, and television reports said the blast shattered windows at nearby Pak Chong town.
Pak Chong officials said thousands of residents were evacuated to a temporary shelter in neighbouring Klangdong district, leaving Pak Chong town, located five kilometres (three miles) from the depot, deserted.
Provincial governor Sunthorn Riewluaeng said villagers living in a five-kilometre radius of the site had been immediately evacuated, and approach roads sealed off to traffic.
"It's still exploding, so I have asked local authorities to evacuate people from all public places such as schools, and close off roads leading to the blast site," he told AFP by mobile phone as he sped to the area.
Sunthorn said it was hard to confirm the casualty list as it was still not safe for emergency crews to approach.
Thailand's Red Cross called for urgent blood donations, saying its workers in Nakhon Ratchasima had told the Bangkok headquarters that they had run out of blood to treat the injured.
"Our Red Cross officials in Nakhon Ratchasima have made an urgent request, especially groups A and AB," the Red Cross said.
The security measures created heavy traffic jams on the Friendship Highway leading to the provincial capital, also called Nakhon Ratchasima, the second largest city in Thailand.
The road links with Highway Two which provides access to 17 northeastern provinces.
Explosions at military ammunition stores happen periodically in Thailand, and are usually blamed on negligence as well as high temperatures which ignite stored gunpowder -- Thailand, (AFP)
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