Fire on the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, Ukraine. 8 October 2022. (Photo: @KyivPost/Twitter)
Eko Hot Blog reports that a truck bomb caused the fire and collapse of sections of Kerch Bridge.
According to Russian authorities, the bomb set alight seven railway carriages carrying fuel.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the explosion resulted in a “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge” but it did not immediately apportion blame.
Images from the bridge showed a fiercely burning fire engulfing at least two railway carriages from a train on the bridge, accompanied by a vast column of black smoke, and one half of the parallel road bridge collapsed into the Kerch Strait, the Guardian reported.
The explosion, which witnesses said could be heard kilometres away, took place before 6am on Saturday while a train was crossing the bridge.
Fire on the Kerch bridge in the Kerch Strait, Crimea, Ukraine. 8 October 2022. (Photo: @KyivPost/Twitter)
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge but were yet to claim responsibility for Saturday’s explosion as of the time of filing this report.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser posted a message on Twitter, calling it “the beginning” but not directly claiming Ukrainian responsibility.
“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately ordered a “government commission” to examine the Kerch Bridge “emergency” in Crimea, Russian state media TASS reported.
According to TASS, the heads of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Transport are now at the scene of the incident.
The bridge was opened by President Putin in 2018 as the only land link to Crimea from Russia. Moscow had annexed the region four years earlier.
After the bridge opened, the United States condemned its construction as illegal.
It is a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsular.
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