'Shrapnel falling from the sky'

The army depot is in Gerdec village

A series of explosions at an arms depot near Albania's capital Tirana is reported to have killed many people.

Ferdinand Balla told the BBC News website how the blasts sent a hail of shrapnel upon his village close to the depot.

It was midday when the explosions started. It was so shocking.

I saw shrapnel falling from the sky. I saw shells flying about and falling on houses, on cars, even on people. They fell on everything. They were 14 or 15 inches long.

Before it started blowing bullets and shells, I could feel warm air surrounding me. I was in my front yard and I had heard the blasts. Blasts and gunfire is normal in Albania so I wasn't worried.

But something else was really weird. It was warm, like an emptiness. It all seemed too quiet for a little bit and then it all started.

They started off like gunshots and then it started getting bigger and bigger and then the ground was shaking.

I actually saw a teenage girl hit by what looked like a bullet falling from the sky onto her shoulder. The man with her at the time immediately turned to help her.

That happened literally 50 or 60 metres away from me.

Immediately after the blasts I saw smoke, a big mushroom cloud. It was unbelievable. It looked like Hiroshima.

I didn't get scared. I immediately looked for my family members and yelled at everyone to get out of the house.

I've never experienced something like that in my life.

It's an awful situation. I wanted to stay and help people as many of my close friends are in the village. One of my friends described how his father and niece was injured because shrapnel fell onto their roof and part of it fell in.