Three people, including officers, killed in explosion in Russia’s Moscow | Russia-Ukraine war News

Investigators say the blast in Moscow occurred close to the site where a Russian general was killed on Monday.

Two police ⁠officers ​and another ‍person have been ‍killed in ⁠blast in southern ​Moscow, ‌near where a general was ‍killed recently by a car bomb Russia said was planted by Ukrainian intelligence, according to investigators.

The two traffic police officers were killed early on Wednesday in an explosion that occurred when they attempted to arrest a suspicious individual, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

“An explosive device was triggered” as the officers approached the suspect, who was near their service vehicle, according to the statement.

“Two police officers succumbed to their injuries,” the statement said, adding that the person standing next to them also died in the explosion. ​

An investigation for “attempted murder” of law enforcement officers and “explosives trafficking” has been opened, it added.

“There was an explosion,” Alexander, a resident ‌who lives nearby, told the Reuters new agency. “It was loud bang – like with the car a few days ago.”

Another resident named Roza said she was woken up by the explosion in the early hours and ‌that the entire building appeared to shake.

Motive unknown

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said the blast occurred very early in the morning near a police station on Yeletskaya Street in southern Moscow, near the site where Russian General Fanil Sarvarov was killed earlier this week.

“These two young traffic police were just 24 and 25 years old,” she said, adding that the older of the victims had a wife and child. “It truly is a tragedy for their families.”

She said the motive for the attack was unknown, with Russian officials saying little at this stage.

The area where the blast occurred was cordoned off by a large police presence, according to images broadcast by Russian television.

The bombing happened near where Sarvarov, head of the operational training department within the Russian General Staff, was killed on Monday by an explosive device placed under a car.

Shapalova said Sarvarov, a high-ranking general, had been involved in training personnel for the military operation in Ukraine.

Russia said it suspected Ukraine ‌was behind Sarvarov’s killing, while there has been no official comment from Ukraine.

Since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, several Russian generals, local officials, and public figures supporting the offensive have died in explosions in Russia or in the occupied part of Ukraine. Kyiv has sometimes claimed responsibility for these attacks.