A powerful explosion shook the center of Monaco on Monday night and caused three injuries in a residential building near the border with France. The injured are the Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Ermolaev, another adult, and a 13-year-old teenager. Two of them are in serious condition and apparently belong to the same Ukrainian family residing in the principality.
Local police are searching for an individual who was captured by security cameras depositing a backpack in front of the main entrance of the affected building, on Reverend Louis Frolla Street. The alleged perpetrator was seen minutes after the explosion fleeing on foot towards the nearby town of Beausoleil, as reported by Le Figaro.
"It is the first time in history that such an act has occurred in the Principality", stated Monaco's prosecutor, Thibault Stéphane, who indicated that he does not know if the victims were the target of the explosive contained in the backpack. Several explosive deactivation experts and judicial police officers were dispatched to the scene shortly after the explosion, which occurred at nine in the evening.
The Mayor of Nice, Éric Ciotti, did not hesitate to describe the incident as "an attack". "My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the people of Monaco," he wrote on his account the X the mayor of the Union of the Republican Right. "All my support to the security forces and emergency services mobilized."