According to A. Ivanova
The explosion on the Crimean bridge, which connects the Krasnodar region of Russia with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula, occurred at about six o'clock in the morning Moscow time on Saturday, October 8. As a result, two spans of the bridge intended for vehicular traffic collapsed.
Shortly after the incident, a report appeared that a fuel tank caught fire on the bridge across the Kerch Strait. Later, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee of Russia reported that a truck was blown up on the automobile part of the bridge, which set fire to seven fuel tanks from the train on the railway part of the bridge, which was moving towards the Krasnodar Territory. Subsequently, the locomotive with part of the damaged train was taken to the Kerch station.
In the afternoon, the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) reported that three people died as a result of the explosion - passengers of a car that was next to the truck at the time of the explosion. In connection with the incident, a criminal case was initiated in the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on the fact of the state of emergency. In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to form a government commission to find out the causes of the incident and eliminate the consequences, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. In the evening, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree "On strengthening measures to protect the transport crossing across the Kerch Strait", entrusting the Federal Security Service with the authority to organize and coordinate measures to protect the bridge.
The authorities of the Krasnodar Territory have introduced a "yellow" level of terrorist threat in the Temryuk district, where the Crimean bridge is located, said the governor of the region, Veniamin Kondratyev. "In crowded places, we will strengthen patrols and searches of cars. We will check all social and infrastructure facilities in order to prevent possible emergencies," the official's Telegram channel says.
After 16.00 Moscow time, reverse traffic for cars and trucks was launched along the intact part of the bridge, the TASS agency reported. It is noted that the ferry across the Kerch Strait also began its work. The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation promised to restore the functionality of the railway part of the bridge on October 8 by 20.00 Moscow time. However, the Grand Service Express railway carrier, shortly after 17.00 Moscow time, announced the departure of passenger trains to Moscow and St. Petersburg, which should proceed to the Russian Federation from the annexed Crimea along the damaged bridge.
The Mash Telegram channel released a video depicting an inspection of a road train that allegedly exploded on the bridge later. As the authors of the channel write, the traffic police officer, who looked inside the semi-trailer, did not see anything suspicious, and the driver behaved calmly and showed all the documents. According to Mash sources, the car was fully loaded with pallet wrap on pallets, the vehicle was not driven into X-ray.
In turn, the Telegram channel Baza published a video of a truck explosion on the bridge from different angles. According to the channel, as a result of the explosion, 1.3 km of the railway track were damaged.
In May 2018, the RIA Novosti agency indicated that the state contract for the protection of the Crimean bridge was concluded with the Krasnodar branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Department of Departmental Security of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. How a truck with explosives could end up on the Crimean bridge is not clear. As noted by Russian state media, it was equipped with ST-6035 stationary inspection and inspection radio-technical complexes of the Departmental Security Directorate of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, which illuminates all vehicles. This complex has devices that "identify drugs, explosives and chemicals even 60 days after the last contact with them," the publications emphasize.
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