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Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan has confirmed that some of the Artsakh Armenians, who had to flee their homes following last week’s Azerbaijani military offensive, died on their way to Armenia.

As many as 84,770 forcibly displaced people crossed into Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh as of Friday morning, the Armenian government reported.

“Unfortunately, such cases have been recorded. People were on the road for over 40 hours and deaths from stroke among the elderly people were reported. Now you know that the travel time [from Nagorno-Karabakh] to [the Armenian border village of] Kornidzor has been cut to about 10 hours,” the health minister told reporters in the town of Goris in Armenia’s Syunik Province on Friday.

Avanesyan highlighted that forced displacement of people had “painful consequences”. "People are drained. Having left behind everything they had in a few hours, they hit the road without basic necessities and medicine and were stuck in a traffic jam for more than 40 hours. Such consequences are inevitable," the minister said.

Separately, she noted that some of those injured in Monday’s explosion at a fuel depot near Stepanakert and transported to Armenia remained in critical condition in Yerevan hospitals.

"Some patients are in critical condition. Doctors are fighting for their lives,” Avanesyan said.