In his words, the investigation was launched pursuant to Part 1 of Article 132 of Lithuania's Penal Code, stating that "a person who commits a homicide through negligence shall be punished by arrest or by imprisonment for a term of up to four years."
Jancevičius underlined that prosecutors, first of all, want to identify the circumstances under which the explosion took place, "and not to look for the guilty ones."
"In fact, there's no indication that it was a terrorist attack or something else. We treat it as an accident. Of course, it was an accident. We are not going to look for the guilty. We are trying to identify the factual circumstances as to how everything happened. After we identify all factual circumstances and the incident itself, then we'll be able to say who, how and when. (…) Of course, explosives could not and shouldn’t have been there, absolutely. (…) Are there responsible people there, whether all people carried out their duties properly, these are issues of the further perspective," Jancevičius said.
One soldier was killed and another wounded on Wednesday in an explosion in the premises of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Staff Battalion in Vilnius. Both troops are from the Juozas Vitkus Engineer Battalion's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company. The wounded soldier is in a stable condition. He is conscious, walking and communicating with doctors.
Following the relatives' permission, the army informed BNS that the killed soldier was identified as Laimonas Bledis, 36. The wounded soldier is in a stable condition.
The army still cannot say clearly what caused the explosion and under what circumstances.
"The explosive has not been identified yet. There were no explosives used for disposal work in the premises. (…) There were no training activities taking place at that moment. I believe, an investigation will give answers to all questions. (…)The soldiers were authorized to be in the premises but there were no explosives stored in those premises," Colonel Vilmantas Tamošaitis, chief of the Lithuanian Joint Headquarters Staff, told journalists at the scene.
Later on Wednesday, the leadership of the Ministry of National Defense, President Dalia Grybauskaitė Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and Speaker of the Seimas Irena Degutienė expressed condolences to the family of the killed soldier. Tamošaitis noted that there have been incidents related to the work of bomb disposal specialists, this was the first tragedy of such extent.
