Yordan Bakalov

Evgeni Vasilev, Chief of Police in Bulgaria's town of Smolyan has been removed from office, Darik news website reports.

Disciplinary proceeding has been opened against Vasilev, and there is an ongoing inspection conducted in the District Police Directorate, deputy caretaker minister and former chief of police in Smolyan Kiril Hadzhihristev confirmed.

Human error is the most likely cause of the deadly blast in the Midzhur explosives factory in the village of Gorni Lom, which killed 15 people on October 1, said caretaker Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov.

According to Bakalov, some of the people, guilty of the blast are alive and have to be investigated.

Authorities have revoked two times the license of the ammunition factory where 15 people died after an explosion razed it to the ground, caretaker Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov revealed.

Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has said he is personally committed to the probe into the explosions that razed the Midzhur factory with 14 to 15 people feared dead.

Tsatsarov also denies previous information that the prosecuting authority has granted rescuers access to the site of the incident, his spokesperson told Focus News Agency.

There were fourteen people at the time of the explosion in the ammo factory Midzhur near the village of Gorni Lom in Bulgaria's north-west, witnesses say.

Initial reports suggested fifteen people could have been inside and feared dead, with the Interior Ministry saying there were no signs of life except for a movement of a wild animal detected earlier on Thursday morning.

The death toll from Wednesday's blast at an explosives factory in northwestern Bulgaria could be as high as 15, according to unofficial estimates.

Operational Headquarters of the National Fire Security and Protection of Population Service is holding an emergency meeting over the blast at a privately-owned explosives factory in the village of Gorni Lom.

The explosion at the plant was registered at around 5pm on Wednesday.

The blast left three people injured but the number of victims remains unknown.

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is the most highly-politicized one, according to Yordan Bakalov, caretaker Interior Minister.

In a Wednesday interview for the morning broadcast of bTV, he suggested that the Interior Ministry was plagued by divisions among officials who were close to this or that minister.

Bulgaria's caretaker Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov refused to divulge if there was an increased number of illegal immigrants after the strikes against the Islamic State (IS).

"We are struggling to handle the situation," he said, quoted by News.bg.

An inter-departmental commission at Bulgaria's Council of Ministers will propose to the caretaker government to approve the allocation of BGN 26 580 640 to coping with flood damage.

The commission, chaired by caretaker Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov, held its second sitting on Monday.