Two people dead after explosion at Oregon gun range

(Reuters) - Two people died in an explosion inside a World War Two era tank at a public gun range in Oregon on Tuesday, authorities said.

Officials were investigating the cause of the afternoon explosion at the COSSA firing range, east of Bend, Deschutes County Sheriff's Office spokesman Nathan Garibay said. It was not clear why the tank was at the gun range, he said.

Representatives of the range could not immediately be reached for comment. The range is on 600 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, leased to COSSA, according to its website, and has various bays offering shooting distances from 50 to 1,000 yards, and allows different types of firearms.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle)