Photo: Anadolu
A Russian warplane accidentally dropped a bomb over the Russian city of Belgorod late Thursday (April 20) night. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the accident and said that a Su-34 supersonic bomber inadvertently discharged a munition over the city.
The explosion left a 65-foot crater in the street, damaging four apartment buildings and four cars. At least two people were injured in the blast. There was no information about their condition.
"It happened at the intersection of one of the central streets, leaving a huge impact crater with a radius of 20 meters," Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said in a Telegram post, according to CNN.
Officials did not say what caused the fighter jet to drop the munition. While the Defense Ministry did not identify the type of munition that exploded, the Washington Post reported that a Russian military blogger suggested it was a glide bomb that malfunctioned.
"The FAB exploded as normal; the fuse was set on delay, so apparently the target was something underground: bunkers, cellars, workshops, and the like," the blogger wrote on Telegram. "Belgorod got lucky today."
"It would all have been fine except for the chosen flight path over the city, which at night glows like a huge lantern, and it's impossible not to see it," he added. "You can't make mistakes like that. This should never ever happen again."