Blast at Moscow Italian restaurant kills at least three, injures 21

A homemade explosive device tore through an Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in central Moscow, killing at least three people and injuring 21, in an attack that immediately drew scrutiny over security in one of the capital’s most prominent districts.

The blast went off at about 20:00 local time, 17:00 GMT, near the city center, in or around Balzi Rossi, an upscale Italian restaurant that was hosting a private event. Russian state media said the device was homemade, and the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said a woman carrying the explosives tried to enter the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard before the explosion.

The scene placed the blast within sight lines of the Kremlin, roughly three kilometers away, and in one of Moscow’s Stalin-era “Seven Sisters” skyscrapers. That location sharpened the focus on how an attacker was able to get close to a high-profile venue in a heavily watched part of the city.

Officials gave uneven casualty counts in the aftermath. Multiple reports said at least three people died and 21 were hurt, while some accounts put the number of injured at 15. Some reports also said the woman carrying the device, the security guard and a customer or visitor were among the dead.

Moscow police treated the explosion as a possible terrorism case, and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin later called it a “terrorist attack.” Steve Rosenberg of the BBC reported from Kudrinskaya Square as investigators and emergency crews worked around the cordoned-off restaurant, where the blast raised immediate questions about who was targeted and whether the capital was facing a more serious domestic threat.