A man sits among the debris left by yesterday's explosion at the Mpila district of Brazzaville, March 5. The Congo issued a plea for international help Monday as soldiers began recovering bodies from an area devastated by huge explosions at a munitions depot that left more than 150 dead and 1,000 injured. President Denis Sassou Nguesso announced a curfew in the capital Brazzaville and set up an exclusion zone around the devastated eastern district of Mpila, following an emergency cabinet meeting in the early hours of the morning.

Police and residents walk through the debris of the Lycee de la Revolution school near the military barracks in the Mpila district of Brazzaville, March 5.

A calcinated tree stands on March 5 in the middle of homes devastated by a huge explosions at a munitions depot in the Mpila area Brazzaville. The government said an electrical short-circuit likely caused a fire, which triggered a series of blasts so powerful they devastated the surrounding area and blew out windows in Kinshasa, the capital of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo situated across the Congo river.

A plume of smoke can be seen over Brazzaville from across the Congo River in Kinshasa, capital of neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo on March 4. A diplomatic source in the Congolese capital said the blasts came from a munitions depot in the east of the city. There was no official word from Brazzaville on the cause of the explosions, or damage sustained.