A Russian deputy mayor and prominent veteran of Moscow’s war in Ukraine was killed in an explosion in southern Russia early on Thursday, authorities said,
CNN reports.
Zaur Aleksandrovich Gurtsiev, who was 34 according to Russian state media, died alongside another man in the blast on a street in Stavropol, which investigators said “committed using a homemade explosive device.”
“As part of the investigation, the scene of the incident is being inspected, examinations are being ordered, and the necessary investigative actions are being carried out to establish all the circumstances of the incident,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a Thursday statement.
Video footage circulated online and on state media appears the show the moment of the blast, which occurs just as Gurtsiev meets the other man in a darkened street, near a row of parked cars.
After the blast, the footage seemingly shows Gurtsiev lying on the ground, while the second man is rocked back by the explosion.
The man who died in the explosion in Stavropol along with Gurtsiev rented an apartment in a building near the scene of the incident, emergency services told state media outlet TASS.
