Attack on the Kerch Bridge: Video: The Kerch Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea hit by a truck bomb

The Kerch road and rail bridge linking Russia and Crimea, seen as a symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, was hit by a massive explosion on Saturday.

Russian authorities said a truck bomb caused the fire and collapse of a section of the bridge. Footage of the bridge shared on showed a massive fire on some railway carriages from a train on the bridge. There was also a vast column of black smoke.

The explosion, which was reportedly heard miles away, occurred around 6 a.m. as a train crossed the bridge.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said on social media that the blast occurred in a freight truck and set fire to seven fuel tank cars on a peninsula-bound train.

He said two sections of the road bridge had partially collapsed, but the arch spanning the Kerch Strait, the waterway through which ships travel between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov, was not repaired. damaged.

The 19 kilometer bridge over the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov is the longest in Europe. The bridge has train and automobile sections

The Kerch Bridge is a vital link to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The road bridge was opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, with the rail bridge opening two years later .

The attack on the bridge comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 70.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser posted a message on Twitter saying the incident was “just the beginning”. But Ukraine refrained from saying that its forces were responsible for the explosion.

The bridge was a $3.6 billion project, AP reported. It was Russia’s only land link to the peninsula until Russian forces seized more Ukrainian territory at the northern end of the Sea of ​​Azov.