A resident of a neighbourhood near the depot said he saw three wounded people on the street, two of which were rushed to hospital on motorbikes.

Media posted images of spent artillery shells that fell in people's homes. Another resident said his neighbour, a shopkeeper, was killed after a shell hit him.

"Loud blasts woke us up," resident Moustapha Adoum Mahamat told Reuters via telephone.

"Our house was shaking as if someone were shooting at us. Then we saw a big fire at the military camp and smoke and things exploding in the air," he said. "We could see artillery fly over us."

Explosions could still be heard more than an hour and a half after the initial blasts.

Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah, who is also the government spokesman, said on Facebook that there were "huge explosions" at the site and urged the population to keep calm.

A senior army official, who requested anonymity, told AFP the "biggest ammunition depot in N'Djamena has caught fire".

There are multiple homes in the neighbourhood hosting the depot, which sits near the international airport and a base where French troops are stationed.

The blaze "caused explosions of ammunition of all calibres", an official with the French forces told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Chad is led by President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who officially won 61 percent of a May 6 vote that international NGOs said was neither credible nor free and which his main rival called a "masquerade".

Deby was proclaimed transitional president in April 2021 by a junta of 15 generals after his father, president Idriss Deby Itno, was shot dead by rebels following 30 years in power. (FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)