MONACO — An explosion at a residential building in Monaco on Monday has injured three people, two of them critically, authorities said, in an unprecedented incident that has rocked the super-safe principality.
A couple and a teenager were wounded in the explosion that struck around 9:00 pm local time (1900 GMT)after a bag was left outside the building on Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla, near the border with France.
A source close to the investigation who asked not to be named told AFP that one of those wounded was Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev.
Minister of State Christophe Mirmand said it was “very likely an attack” and police were investigating.
He said the blast had been caused by an explosive device which appeared to contain bolts and pellets.
“This is the first time in history, to my knowledge, that such an act has taken place in the principality,” Mirmand, the head of Monaco’s government, said.
Monaco’s Prince Albert II described the incident as a “heinous crime” and “a shock to the entire Monegasque community”.
An aide to France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police were working “to find the perpetrator, who has fled”.
A couple in their 50s or 60s suffered life-threatening injuries, while a 13-year-old suffered less serious injuries in the explosion, Mirmand said, without disclosing their identities.
He said the teenager was “very likely related” to the pair.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw a heavy police presence with access to the area cordoned off, while a helicopter circled overhead.
Around 50 firefighters and 80 security personnel were deployed at the scene.
Public prosecutor Stephane Thibault said a suspect had left a bag or package in the building’s lobby before leaving. Nothing appeared for the moment to indicate why the building might have been targeted, he added.
The Monaco government said the “strong explosion” was caused by a “parcel bomb”.
“A suspect was seen on video surveillance fleeing toward the municipality of Beausoleil in France,” it wrote on X.
Mirmand said witnesses had provided information to identify the suspect.
Emergency services treated four other people for shock and cuts from windows shattered in the blast, he said.
Yermolaiev, a multi-millionaire Monaco resident, has been subject to sanctions from Kyiv since December 2023, which Ukrainian security services reportedly said stemmed from his business activity in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Mirmand told a news conference late Monday that intelligences services were working to understand the victims’ background and “determine if others might be facing specific threats”.
He said the prosecutor would give another news briefing on Tuesday.
Source: Saudi Gazette