Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Sunday described the bomb blast at a restaurant in the Russian capital a day earlier as a “brutal terrorist act”, as investigators continued to examine the attack and authorities gave no indication of who was behind it.
The explosion at Balzi Rossi, an upscale Italian restaurant in central Moscow, killed three people, including the woman bomber, Russian state media reported, citing local officials. At least 21 people were injured in the blast on Saturday evening, according to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, as reported by Ria Novosti.
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“Yesterday, a brutal terrorist act was committed in Moscow that claimed human lives. The victims are currently in the city’s hospitals, where they are receiving all necessary care,” Sobyanin wrote on social media on Sunday. He said an inquiry into the attack was under way and added: “Those responsible for committing this crime will certainly be found and will face the punishment they deserve.”
Ria Novosti reported that the explosive device went off at the restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square after a woman tried to bring the bomb into the establishment. A security guard stopped her from entering before the device exploded, the report said. The Moscow Investigative Committee said on Saturday evening that the attack was still under investigation. As of early Sunday afternoon, Russian authorities had not released further information and no one had publicly claimed responsibility. Ria Novosti also said the restaurant had been closed on Saturday evening for a private function.
Footage released by Russian state media showed heavily armed law enforcement personnel, ambulances and other emergency vehicles at the site. Earlier this year, Russia’s Federal Security Service said security would be tightened around senior military and government officials after a series of assassination attempts in Russian cities following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities have so far not linked Saturday’s blast to those earlier attacks or to the war in Ukraine.
Russia has previously accused Kyiv of carrying out bomb attacks in Moscow. It said Ukraine was behind a car bombing in April last year that killed Lt Gen Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational department in Russia’s General Staff, though Ukraine did not publicly claim responsibility. Ukraine’s SBU security service had earlier said it organised the killing in December 2024 of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces. Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service filed criminal charges against him. Other prominent victims of bombing attacks in Russia have included Daria Dugina, daughter of nationalist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, and pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Kyiv denied involvement in the attack on Dugina and did not respond to Russian accusations over Tatarsky’s death. Saturday’s restaurant blast is now under investigation, with authorities yet to identify those responsible.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
