A powerful car bomb has exploded in the city of Energodar in Russia’s frontline Zaporozhye Region, a senior local official reported.
According to Vladimir Rogov, a member of the local military-civilian administration, the blast occurred in the morning, killing at least one person. He described the incident as a terrorist attack.
The local police force identified the victim as one of its officers in a preliminary report, TASS news agency said.
The explosion struck a residential area and was powerful enough to shatter glass as high as at the ninth floor in nearby apartment complexes, and to obliterate a car parked nearby, the official said.
Rogov posted footage purportedly shot at the scene, in which a firefighter can be seen dousing flames at the site of a car wreckage.
Zaporozhye Region, formerly a part of Ukraine, joined Russia last year after people living there voted in a referendum for the transition. Kiev dismissed the ballot as a “sham.” Energodar is notable as the site of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest atomic facility in Europe.