A man detonated an explosive device beside a police patrol car in central Moscow early on Tuesday, killing one officer and wounding two others, the Russian Interior Ministry said.
The blast occurred just after midnight at Savyolovsky railway station square, according to the ministry’s statement on Telegram. Savyolovsky station, in northern Moscow, is one of the capital’s main railway hubs.
The attacker approached traffic police officers sitting in their patrol vehicle and then an explosive device detonated, the statement said, adding that the attacker died at the scene.
According to state news agency TASS, the targeted patrol car was heavily damaged but did not catch fire. Local media outlets published images showing a police vehicle with shattered windows near railway tracks.
The area was cordoned off by police and several ambulances were sent to the scene.
Russia’s Interior Ministry initially said the perpetrator had fled. Minutes later, it said the man was found dead at the site after investigating the scene and reviewing surveillance footage.
Authorities gave no immediate details about the explosive or the attacker’s motive.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top investigative body, said it launched a criminal probe into the attempted murder of a law enforcement official and the illegal possession of explosive devices.
In December 2025, two police officers were killed in a blast in southern Moscow as they tried to stop a suspicious person near their vehicle, near the site where a Russian general had been killed days earlier.
There have been a string of assassinations of Russian army officials on Russian soil during Moscow’s four-year war against Ukraine.
Earlier this month, a top Russian military intelligence officer was shot several times and wounded in an attack Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
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