Three people – including two police officers – have been killed in an explosion in Moscow, Russian authorities have said.
Two traffic police officers saw a “suspicious individual” near a police car on the city’s Yeletskaya Street, and when they approached the suspect to detain him, an explosive device was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said.
Reports in Russia say the third person killed was the suspect, but this has not been officially confirmed.
The blast took place close to the location where a senior Russian general was killed in a car bombing in the capital on Monday. Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died after an explosive device – which had been planted under a car – was detonated.
Investigate Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement on Telegram that a criminal case was being investigated in Moscow “regarding an attempt on the lives of traffic police officers”.
The officers have been named by Russian media as Ilya Klimanov, 24, and Maxim Gorbunov, 25.
Sources in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR, told the BBC that a local resident, eliminated two representatives of the Russian law enforcement agency, “as a sign of disagreement with the Kremlin’s aggressive policy” and said that a man “threw an explosive package through the car window, causing an explosion”.
According to the HUR sources, two other people were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Ukrainian military sources also told the BBC on Wednesday that the two officers killed had “participated in hostilities against Ukraine,” and added there was “evidence of their involvement in the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
There are no details and Moscow has not commented.
Speaking to Reuters news agency, Alexander, a resident who lives close by, said: “There was an explosion.
“It was loud bang – like with the car a few days ago.”
Russia said it suspected Ukraine was behind Monday’s explosion, without providing any evidence.
However Ukraine has not said whether it was involved in Fanil Sarvarov’s death.
It is also not known whether the two explosions are linked.
Sarvarov, 56, was the head of the armed forces’ operational training department.
He was the third military official to have been killed in bomb attacks in the Russian capital over the last year.