Powerful explosion rocks two apartment buildings in St Petersburg as ‘drone downed’ over city
Russian authorities said two buildings were damaged after a huge explosion in an unspecified “incident” in St Petersburg on Saturday, with unconfirmed media reports attributing it to the downing of a Ukrainian drone, The Independent reports.
No casualties were reported in the incident which took place at about 6.50am local time (3.50am GMT) in the Krasnogvardeysky district of Russia’s second-biggest city where the country’s president Vladimir Putin was born.
Six people required medical attention after the explosion rocked the buildings, RIA Novosti, a state-owned news agency said, citing the press service of the city’s health care committee.
It comes as three people were killed in a Russian drone strike at an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, officials said. Eight people were injured, regional governor Oleh Kiper said, after the region came under attack from eight drones out of which seven were shot down by air defences.
Russian media outlets suggested the St Petersburg incident may have been the result of a downed drone crashing into the apartment buildings. The likely target of the strike may have been the northeast of St Petersburg, less than a kilometre from the crash site, according to the Telegram channel Mash, one of the most popular Russian-language channels.
