Explosion in central Moscow kills 3, injures 21 near cafe

An explosion near Kudrinskaya Square in central Moscow killed at least three people and injured 21, with Russian officials giving different tolls as the response unfolded. The blast hit around 20:00 local time, near a cafe or restaurant in the city center, and emergency crews sealed off the area as police, firefighters, rescue teams and forensic investigators moved in.

The Russian Interior Ministry said three people were killed and at least 15 others were injured. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee later put the number of wounded at 21, matching the higher injury count reported in some official accounts. The differences in those figures underscored how quickly the story shifted in the first hours after the blast.

Officials described the device as an improvised explosive device, and the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said it detonated after a security guard confronted a suspected attacker. Other details of how the explosion unfolded remained unsettled, and the cause was still being examined by investigators. Baza Telegram said the blast happened in the establishment’s kitchen, adding another version to the competing early accounts.

Some reports identified the venue as Balzi Rossi, an Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square. That location, a busy area close to Moscow’s center, became the focus of a heavy security and rescue operation as authorities worked to account for the dead and wounded and to establish who brought the device inside.

The changing toll reflected the pressure on Russian crisis reporting, where the first official numbers can vary before investigators settle on a final account. In this case, the difference between 15 and 21 wounded, and between descriptions of a restaurant blast and a kitchen detonation, showed how fragmented the picture remained in the hours after the explosion.