The governor of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimeaannexed by Russia in 2014, reported on Monday ato “emergency” on the Kerch bridge after hearing at least two explosions and subsequently detecting damage to the road. The parents of a girl died and their daughter was injured in a passenger car on the Crimean bridge early Monday, said Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in southern Russia, Reuters reports.
“The traffic was suspended on the Crimean bridge: an emergency occurred in the area of support (pillar) 145 of the Krasnodar Territory,” Governor Sergei Axionov said on his Telegram channel.
The Russian Ministry of Transport acknowledged that there is “damage to the road in the sections of the Crimean bridge”, which links the occupied peninsula with Russia, but that the pillars are intact, according to the TASS agency.
Media such as the Telegram channel Astra previously claimed that a section of the bridge has fallen after at least two explosions were heard, according to residents.
locals listened two explosions around 00.04 and 00.20 GMT, according to his comments on the Russian social network VKontakte.
Not only car traffic has been suspended, but also rail and ferry transport.
call to calm
train traffic it should resume around 0600 GMT, Axionov said.
The governor asked Crimeans and Russian tourists, who are traveling en masse to the peninsula for the summer this July, to remain calm and trust only official information.
“Given the current situation, I ask the residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from traveling over the Crimean bridge and, for security reasons, choose an alternative land route through new regions” annexed by Russia last September, insisted.
Russian researchers they have already moved to the place to start the investigation of what happened. Russia is still not talking about an attack on the infrastructure, the construction of which was the jewel in the crown of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who inaugurated the automobile section in 2018 and the rail section in 2019.
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In October last year, a truck full of explosives exploded on the bridge, considered the longest in Europe with its 19 kilometers, which was described by Russia as a terrorist attack organized by Ukraine.
Five people died in the attack.