More than 3,000 people in the Russian city of Belgorod are being evacuated from their homes after an unexploded bomb was found near the site of another that exploded earlier this week.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, on Saturday afternoon announced the measure, saying “17 apartment buildings within a radius of 200 metres” of the ordnance were being asked to leave.
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He added: "Bomb disposal experts have found an explosive device. Explosive ordnance engineers from the Russian Defence Ministry decided to defuse it at the training ground.
“Preliminary reports indicate… more than 3,000 people [will be evacuated]. Anyone who needs temporary accommodation assistance will be provided with it."
Footage from Russian media showed soldiers asking people to leave their homes and lines of buses waiting to take people away.
On Thursday evening, local officials reported a massive explosion in Belgorod, saying the blast had left a crater in the city center and injured two women. It was later announced it was a bomb from a Russian plane.
Gladkov said at the time said the blast had sent a shock wave that damaged four apartments and four cars and downed power line poles.
"An explosion took place," Gladkov said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that investigators and representatives of Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations were at the scene.
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Russia’s defense ministry then set a new standard in euphemisms after it announced the explosion in the center of the city was caused by the “abnormal descent of aviation ammunition.”
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