Search and rescue operations at the Surmalu shopping market in continue on Saturday, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

As a result of these search and rescue operations, the dead bodies of 16 persons and the dead body of an unidentified person were found.

A total of 63 people were administered to hospitals in Yerevan, three of them continue to receive treatment there, and the rest were discharged after receiving corresponding medical assistance.

Between August 14-19, a total of 1,111 rescue workers participated in firefighting and search and rescue operations at the Surmalu market.

The rescuers took out ten people from the rubble.

As a result of calls to the 911 emergency hotline, these persons are considered missing in the area of the Surmalu market: Gagik Karapetyan (born in 1959), and Vanik Amirkhanyan (born in 1967).

At 1:23pm on August 14, the national center for crisis management received a report that there was an explosion and an ensuing fire at the Surmalu shopping market in Yerevan, as a result of which the three-story building in this market had partially collapsed.

The fire was put out at 5:49pm on Tuesday.

According to preliminary data, the area of firefighting and rescue operations is about 1 hectare.

Most of the aforesaid three-story building (2,889 square meters) and a number of small stores in the adjacent area have collapsed.