The cause of the explosion - which occurred around midnight on Tuesday - is not yet clear, but authorities have dismissed rumors of a hostile action behind it.

The state authorities have revealed that so far no casualty has been recorded, but some people did suffer from severe cases of suffocation due to the smoke.

“The authorities are controlling a fire in the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility,” the Sudanese Media Centre, which is close to the security apparatus, said in a brief alert.

Sudanese Armed Forces spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khalid Saad, said that an internal explosion occurred in one of the storage facilities and the fire spread due to plenty of grass in the area. He confirmed that they already launched an investigation into the incident.

In 1998, the US launched a missile attack on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, alleging that it was making materials for chemical weapons.
Sudan denied the allegation, insisting that the US had attacked a factory that manufactured anti-malaria medicines and veterinary products in defiance of international laws.

Also, similar explosion occurred at the same factory in August 2006, leading to the injury of seven SAF members. The authorities attributed the incident at the time to an electric short circuit.