Moscow said a bomb was accidentally dropped by a Russian aerospace force (air force) plane while flying over Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, on Thursday night, after local authorities said a powerful explosion, which injured two people and created a huge crater in the center of the city.

“During a flight of an Su-34 aircraft of the Aerospace Forces over the city of Belgorod, an unnatural fall of aviation ammunition occurred,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

According to the announcement, relayed by Russian news agencies, the incident unfolded around 22:15 (local and Greek time).

Russian military aircraft frequently fly over Belgorod as part of the “special military operation”, the war launched by Moscow against Ukraine in February 2022.

Local officials reported a powerful explosion in Belgorod earlier last night, injuring two women and creating a huge crater at an intersection in the center of the city.

“There was an explosion,” noted the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, adding that it created a crater with a diameter of 20 meters at the intersection of the central roads of the city of the same name.

Mr Gladkoff said one woman was taken to hospital with a head injury while a second woman was treated at the scene.

“Houses were destroyed, the shock wave damaged parked vehicles and power poles,” he added via Telegram.

He added that investigators and officials from the Ministry of Emergency Management rushed to the scene.

Mr Gladkov and Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov also uploaded photos of the bomb site to social networking sites.

One of them shows people huddled in front of an apartment building, among them a woman holding a small dog in her arms, while a fire engine can be seen in the distance.

Mr. Demidov uploaded images on Telegram showing part of the asphalt destroyed by the explosion, debris in front of a building and the interior of a destroyed apartment. The mayor said people staying in damaged properties would be temporarily moved to hotels.

Belgorod region has suffered several blows, sometimes fatally, usually attributed by Moscow to Ukraine. In January, Mr Gladkov said 25 people had been killed and 90 injured in the region since the war began.

In October 2022, a Su-34 bomber crashed into an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Yeisk, also near the border with Ukraine, killing 16 people, including children.

In July 2022, Mr Gladkov announced that explosions near the center of Belgorod had killed four people and injured four others. The Russian military later announced that it had intercepted three missiles fired at the city.