A deadly explosion at a state-owned industrial complex in Yangon yesterday has left nearly 1,000 people without shelter and in need of food, shelter and medicine.

Residents of Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, where an explosion killed 20 and injured nearly 100 others, also destroyed or damaged surrounding homes and sending residents to seek shelter in monasteries and schools in adjacent neighborhoods.

Ma Khin Aye, 27, mother of a six-year-old son and pregnant with her second child, said she was shaken awake yesterday morning when the explosion knocked down part of her house.

She grabbed her son and fled the house and the neighborhood.

“We have escaped death but we are not sure where we will sleep,” she said.

Daw Aye Than, whose home was lost in the blast and subsequent fire, said much of the area around the destroyed warehouse was badly damaged.

“We have seen some homes collapsed, some people dying, some crying. It was a terrible scene,” she said, adding that she had taken refuge in a nearby monastery.

In the wake of the blast, local authorities and political party members along with representative from social organizations have distributed food, water, medicines and cooking supplies to those who were forced to flee their homes.

Myanmar’s state-run MRTV has put the official death toll at 20, with another 95 injured. But a doctor at Yangon General Hospital who asked not to be named put the number of injured at more than 100.

An employee of the government-run warehouse who asked not to be named said the explosion happened about 1:30am yesterday.

“When I arrived there about an hour later, I saw the fire brigade [was suffering] and that fire fighters had been killed.”

Five fire fighters died while battling the blaze. Their funerals were held yesterday evening, according to local news reports.