Central Moscow Restaurant Bombing Kills Three, Injures at Least 21
A homemade bomb exploded near an upscale restaurant in central Moscow on Saturday evening, killing three people and injuring at least 21 others, according to Russian authorities and state media reports.
Police said the blast occurred shortly before 8 p.m. local time near Balzi Rossi, an Italian restaurant located in a Stalin-era skyscraper at Kudrinskaya Square. Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee said an unidentified woman carrying the device attempted to enter the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard.
The woman, the guard and a restaurant customer were killed in the subsequent explosion, according to the state-run RIA news agency. Authorities said the injured sustained wounds of varying severity. Their identities, as well as those of the dead, were not immediately released.
Video distributed by RIA showed heavily armed law enforcement officers at the scene, while police and emergency crews sealed off the surrounding area. Officials had not publicly identified a suspect or organization believed to be responsible for the bombing.
The Kommersant newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that the device may have been intended to target people on the restaurant’s outdoor summer terrace. The newspaper also raised the possibility that the bomb was detonated remotely and that the woman carrying it may not have known it contained explosives. Authorities had not confirmed that account.
The restaurant’s website indicated that the venue was closed to the public Saturday for a private event.
The explosion comes amid heightened security concerns in Russia, more than four years after the country began its full-scale war against Ukraine. Earlier this year, Russia’s FSB security service said protection for senior military officials would be increased following assassinations and attempted killings that it attributed to Ukraine. No connection between those incidents and Saturday’s blast has been established.