AKETOYO, Aichi -- Explosions occurred at a gunpowder storage facility of an oil factory here Saturday morning, but nobody was injured, police said.

At around 10:20 a.m., a gunpowder storage facility of NOF Corp.'s factory in Taketoyo exploded, triggering a fire, local police said. The fire caused more than 10 minor explosions before firefighters managed to extinguish it at 12:54 p.m.

Two of the three buildings that made up the factory, with a total floor space of some 420 square meters, were burned down.

Several workers were working at the facility Saturday morning, but all of them escaped in response to a fire alarm that activated before the first explosion.

Investigators suspect that about 33.2 tons of smokeless gunpowder stored in the buildings exploded and burned.

This is not the first time that an explosion has occurred at the facility. In August 2000, a massive amount of smokeless gunpowder went off at the facility, injuring 112 people, most of them local residents, and damaged about 1,500 buildings in the neighborhood. (Mainichi)