Fire extinguishing is no longer being carried out at the Surmalu shopping market in Yerevan because there is no fire anymore; just cooling is carried out. Armen Pambukhchyan, the Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia, informed reporters about this on Tuesday morning.

"The more we clear the rubble, the more small fires flare up—including in the form of smoke. We carry out search and rescue work in full extent. As long as there is a likelihood that we can find a person under the rubble, we are not using heavy equipment at once," the minister added, in particular.

When asked whether they have a preliminary idea as to when these search and rescue operations will be completed, the emergency minister responded that they do not know yet.

"But we have no idea of a short period of time; but nothing is ruled out," he said.

The emergency minister informed that two columns of a building of the Surmalu market were dismantled Monday.

"But there are two more parts. One is the main building, which we don't want to ‘touch’ yet, and there are buildings in the back as well; we have found bodies from there, too. When we find out that there are no more people there, we will disassemble [them]," Pambukhchyan said.

There are 16 casualties so far as a result of Sunday’s powerful explosion at the Surmalu shopping market in Yerevan. Also 17 people are considered missing; one of them is an Iranian citizen, the other—a Russian national. A total of 350 rescuers are participating in the search and rescue operations at the market, and about 150 volunteers are helping them. The total number of injured is 61. Twelve of them continue to be treated in various hospitals, and their health condition is assessed as satisfactory. The other hospitalized patients have been discharged with positive dynamics of their condition. Also, 21 vehicles have been removed from under the rubble.