Over 200 tons of munitions had been missing from the military base in the Sofia Quarter of Chelopechene before the storage facility exploded last Thursday, throwing the Bulgarian capital in panic.

The news became public on Monday after Bulgaria's State National Security Agency DANS laid out its materials for the Military Prosecution its materials from an investigation against the former commander of the Chelopechene base Major Miroslav Toshev, which was initiated in May.

The first suit against Toshev was started on May 28 over the lack of 51 tons of munitions. The military police is currently investigating how much the missing metal was worth, and what losses had been incurred to the Army.

A month later the DANS Military Counterintelligence reported that a total of about 200 tons of ammo had gone missing from the Chelopechene Military Base.

There is a second investigation against the former commander Toshev for the illegal cutting down of 350 cubic meters of poplar trees in and around the base, which were worth about BGN 60 000.

Meanwhile, the fire fighter on duty at the Chelopechene Warehouse testified before the police that there had been a fire in the facility before the blasts started.

During the interrogation, the man admitted he had noticed the fire around 6 a.m. on July 3, about half an hour before the first explosion but that he had no idea how it started.

The military prosecutors and police are going to visit again the site of the explosions on Tuesday. They have requested all available documentation about the base from the Defense Ministry.