* EAC appeals to cut down consumption *
At least 12 people were killed in a massive explosion at a military base on the southern coast of Cyprus just before dawn on Monday, damaging a major power station nearby and plunging half the island into darkness.
Press reports raised the fatalities from eight earlier, while the number was not bigger as many servicemen were out of the base on training missions.
The state Cyprus News Agency quoted military sources as saying there were also scores of injured at the Evangelos Florakis base near Zygi, half-way between the coastal cities of Limassol and Larnaca.
The explosions threw debris onto the highway several hundred metres away, injuring some motorists, while the main road link from Limassol to Nicosia has been shut.
It is believed the blasts occurred in a dump housing munitions which Cyprus had confiscated from a vessel heading to Syria from Iran in 2009.
"It looks like a bombed-out landscape," a witness told Sigma television, with other reports describing the area as an enormous crater.
The explosion knocked out Vasilikos, the island's largest power station with a production capacity of 860MW.
"We can't assess the extent of the damage, but it's a biblical disaster," Costas Gavrielides, spokesman for the state-run electricity authority told Reuters.
The EAC has appealed to consumers to cut down their consumption of electricity to the bare minimum, as Vasilikos is out of use and the auxiliary power station at Dhekelia has reached its output capacity, generating 460MW. Many rural areas remain without electricity.
An alternative power station at Moni, several kilometres west of Vasiliko has been scaled down to 330MW and was headed for decommissioning over the next few years.
EXTENSIVE DAMAGE
Police and army officials gave little detail about the incident which happened at 05.45 local time (0245 GMT).
"There are a number of dead which we cannot confirm yet," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said.
Ambulances were seen rushing to the scene, while hospitals all over the island issued emergency appeals for blood.
The military base stored munitions from the Monchegorsk, which Cyprus intercepted sailing from Iran to Syria in 2009 after pressure from the U.S., confiscating its cargo for being in violation of U.N. sanctions on Iran.
The intensity of the blast caused extensive damage to property nearby and to a popular tourist resort 3 km away, where windows and doors of beachside restaurants were blown out.
