One soldier dead, several injured in Indonesian army ammunition depot blast

An ammunition depot explosion at a TNI AD (Indonesian Army) facility in Madiun, East Java, on Thursday, July 16, 2026, claimed the life of one soldier and left four others with serious injuries and two with minor ones. The blast occurred while soldiers were conducting inspection and maintenance procedures on ammunition materials in one of the storage warehouses.

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In this incident, 1 soldier was declared dead, 4 seriously injured, and 2 others lightly injured.

Brigadier General Donny Pramono, Head of the TNI AD Information Service, confirmed the casualties during a press conference. He stated that the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, with an investigative team currently on site. This incident marks another in a series of ammunition depot explosions that have occurred in Indonesia.

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There were no fatalities in the residential areas.

Previous incidents include an explosion at a Kodam Jaya ammunition depot in Bogor on March 30, 2024, which fortunately resulted in no fatalities but caused damage. That explosion involved expired ammunition stored for over a decade. Another blast occurred on March 4, 2024, at the East Java Regional Police's Brimob Unit in Surabaya during a bomb disposal training exercise, injuring 10 members. More tragically, an explosion at the TNI AD Ammunition Center III in Garut on May 12, 2025, during the disposal of unserviceable ammunition, led to 13 deaths, including four TNI AD soldiers and nine civilians.

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Soldiers were initially going to destroy unserviceable ammunition in Sagara Village, Cibalong District, Garut, which is far from residential areas.