Explosion at Moscow restaurant kills three, injures 21

An explosion at a restaurant in the Russian capital has killed at least three people and wounded 21 others, authorities say.

The explosion, caused by a homemade bomb carried by a woman, took place near the Balzi Rossi restaurant on the ground floor ‌of one of Moscow’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers in Kudrinskaya Square on Saturday, according to police.

In a statement on the Russian social media platform Max, the Ministry of Interior said the blast occurred at about 8pm (17:00 GMT).

Moscow police initially told state news agency RIA Novosti that the blast caused “three deaths and 15 injured, of varying degrees of seriousness”, but the number of injured has grown.

Armed security forces sealed off access to the restaurant, Russian media said.

Initially, local media reports said the explosion may have ⁠been caused by a gas canister detonating. But Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee later told state news agency TASS that the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device. It said a woman had tried to enter the restaurant with the device but was stopped by a security guard.

The committee said those killed included a security guard who tried to stop the woman, the woman herself and a restaurant customer. This could not be independently verified.

Authorities have not released the names of those killed or injured, and they have not yet named a suspect.

Earlier, the Telegram monitoring channel ASTRA, citing witnesses, reported that a birthday celebration for a general was taking place near where the explosion occurred. The report could not be independently verified, and authorities have not confirmed the claim.

Kommersant, a Russian daily newspaper, citing its own sources, reported that the bomb was intended to kill guests on the restaurant’s summer terrace and may have been detonated remotely by someone other than the woman carrying it — and that she may not have known it was an explosive device.

The restaurant’s website said the venue was closed Saturday for a private event.

Police, firefighters and emergency services were deployed to the scene, while authorities said the cause of the explosion was under investigation.

Traffic near the square was temporarily blocked, Russian media reported, and the entrances to the Barrikadnaya metro station were closed.

More than four years into Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine, the FSB security service said earlier this year that authorities would step up protection for high-ranking military officials following a series of assassinations and attempted killings it blamed on Kyiv.