22 April,2023 08:43 AM IST | Moscow | Agencies
The site of the crater after an explosion in Belgorod, Russia, on Friday. Pic/AP
When a powerful blast shook a Russian city near the border of Ukraine residents thought it was an Ukrainian attack. But the Russian military quickly acknowledged that it was a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its warplanes.
Belgorod, a city of 3,40,000 about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the border, has faced regular drone attacks that Russian authorities blame on the Ukrainian military.
Witnesses reported a low hissing sound followed by a blast that made buildings tremble and threw a car on a store roof. It left a 20-meter (66-foot) -wide crater in a tree-lined boulevard flanked by buildings, shattering windows, damaging several cars and injuring two. A third person was hospitalized with hypertension.
Russian commentators and military bloggers were abuzz with theories about what weapon Ukraine had used.Many called for a powerful retribution. But about an hour later, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the explosion was caused by a weapon accidentally dropped by one of its Su-34 bombers. Military experts said the weapon likely was a powerful 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) bomb.
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