Blast at Ukrainian church injures nine

A bomb exploded at an Orthodox Christian church in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya today, killing an 80-year-old …

A bomb exploded at an Orthodox Christian church in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya today, killing an 80-year-old woman who media said was a nun and injuring eight other people.

The blast occurred on the day Ukraine celebrated an anniversary of its conversion to Christianity in 988.

It was not immediately clear who planted the device that Ukrainian media quoted local officials as saying was the equivalent of 500 grams of TNT.

There was no claim of responsibility and the local Emergencies Ministry declined to comment.

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“She died on the operating table, she was so seriously wounded,” Nadiya Sevalneva, head of Zaporizhzhya’s health department, said of the woman she said was aged 80.

Local media reported the woman was a nun at the church at which the bomb went off.

Reuters