The search through the remnants of an ammunition plant in central Tennessee shifted Saturday to a mission to recover the remains of the missing, as hope of finding signs of life all but vanished after an explosion a day earlier, officials said.

So far, the search had not yielded any survivors, officials said.

Authorities have yet to provide an exact death toll from the blast. Sixteen people remain unaccounted for. And in an emotional news conference, Sheriff Chris Davis of Humphreys County, Tennessee, said the search had shifted to a recovery effort. He acknowledged that the prospects of finding anyone else alive had grown dismal.

“We can assume they are deceased at this point,” Davis said at a news conference Saturday. He choked up as he tried to explain the gravity of the devastation

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