Russia says its warplane accidentally dropped bomb over own city

Moscow, The Gulf Observer: Russia’s military has acknowledged that a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its warplanes caused a powerful blast in a Russian city not far from Ukraine’s border.

The explosion on late Thursday was far more powerful than anything Belgorod residents had experienced before. Two people were injured, and a third person was later hospitalised with hypertension, authorities said.

Witnesses reported a low hissing sound followed by a blast that made nearby apartment buildings tremble and shattered their windows.

It left a 20-metre (66-foot) -wide crater in the middle of a tree-lined boulevard flanked by apartments, damaged several cars and threw one vehicle onto a store roof.

Immediately after the explosion, Russian commentators and military bloggers were abuzz with theories about what weapon Ukraine had used for the attack. Many of them called for strong retribution.

But about an hour later, the Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged that a weapon accidentally released by one of its own Su-34 bombers caused the blast.

The ministry did not provide any further details, but military experts said the weapon likely was a powerful 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) bomb.