A blast that ripped through grain silos near the Port of Derince in northwest Türkiye on Monday damaged some 15,000 tons of grain, the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications said in a statement.

The blast took place due to wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silos, Seddar Yavuz, the governor of Kocaeli province, said Monday. It was not clear what other grain was stored in the silos.

The explosion at the Turkish Grain Board (TMO) silos damaged 13 of 60 silos there and injured 12 people.

The TMO’s Port of Derince silos have the capacity to hold 95,000 tons of grain and there were 75,000 tons stored when the explosion took place, the directorate’s statement said.

"According to the initial examinations, some 20% of the storage was damaged," it said.