New York, Oct 11: Nineteen people are dead or missing after a devastating blast destroyed a building at a military explosives plant in the US state of Tennessee, local officials said.

"I can tell you that we're missing 19 souls," Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said at a news conference Friday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported quoting CNN.

Speaking to reporters, Davis described the scene as "one of the most devastating" sites he'd ever seen, adding "there's nothing to describe, it's gone." He said there's a half square mile of debris from the explosion.

Families are grieving and and experiencing a "gauntlet of emotion", Davis said.

Davis has warned that investigations may take some time while multiple agencies involved work together to figure out what happened.

The explosion happened around 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT), Davis said at a news conference Friday morning. "We can confirm that we do have some that are deceased."

Hickman County Mayor Jim Bates told ABC News earlier Friday that at least 13 people were unaccounted for.

The company, Accurate Energetic Systems, LLC, is located southwest of Nashville, Tennessee, specialising in the production of military explosives, according to the Humphreys County Sheriff's Office.

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David Stewart with Hickman County Emergency Services told CNN earlier Friday that the office could not verify "the extent of damage or injuries."

Multiple agencies have responded to the scene and are working to assess and contain the fire, but they are currently holding back from the immediate area due to concerns over secondary explosions, the sheriff's office said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Homeland Security and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are among the agencies that have responded to the scene, Davis said.

(IANS)