YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS. The preliminary suspected cause of the explosion in Yerevan’s Burger King fast food restaurant was a faulty pressure cylinder attached to a beer dispenser.

ARMENPRESS looked into the case in an attempt to find out whether or not the fast food chain had an alcohol license. In response to an inquiry, Ara Sadoyan, head of the Kentron (downtown) administrative district of Yerevan, told ARMENPRESS that Burger King had made the tariff payment for obtaining the license in the first quarter of 2018, but didn’t submit a request for renewing the license.

Burger Arm LLC, the operator of the business, was granted a permit for selling alcoholic beverages for the 4th quarter of 2017, after which the company made the tariff payment on 08.01.2018 as defined by law for the first quarter of 2018, but the document for getting a license was not formed, taking into account that no application was submitted under Decision N 843 on alcohol license, according to Ara Sadoyan.

Earlier the Investigative Committee told ARMENPRESS that Burger King had obtained an alcohol license in November of 2017, which was expired in December of 2017. The Investigative Committee said that the company had indeed applied for renewal of the license, but continued to sell alcoholic beverages without receiving a response to the renewal request.

At 20:44, April 2, emergency services were notified that an explosion took place in the Burger King fast food restaurant in Northern Avenue, Yerevan.
Multiple emergency personnel and first responders were dispatched to the scene. The Yerevan Police Department has ruled out foul play and mentioned a faulty CO2 cylinder to be the cause of the blast. 
Eight people were injured in the incident.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan