One person was killed and seven others were injured in an explosion at a military base in Russia's Far East while unloading ammunition, Russia's official TASS news agency reported on Thursday.

The explosion occurred on the military base located in the village of Teysine, in the Khabarovsk region, according to a source at the local emergency service, quoted by the agency.

One person -- a soldier -- "was killed," the source said.

Seven other people were injured in this "powder explosion that occurred during the unloading of ammunition", she said.

According to the local Ministry of Health, two of them suffered from serious burns.

The explosion caused a fire which was brought under control, according to TASS.

The poor state of infrastructure and failure to comply with safety rules are the cause of many accidents of this nature - fires, explosions on military sites - each year in Russia.

At the end of April, a fire ravaged a military research institute in Tver, 160 km from Moscow, and killed 17 people. The Russian media mentioned as a cause a problem due to the dilapidated electrical wiring of the building.