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Bodyguard killed, MP and two others wounded in Kiev blast

By Natalia Zinets and Alessandra Prentice

 

Investigators work at the site of a car explosion in central Kiev, Ukraine October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

 

KIEV (Reuters) - An explosion in Kiev on Wednesday killed a bodyguard and wounded three people including Ukrainian lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk, Ukrainian officials said, describing the incident as a deliberate attack.

 

Mosiychuk, a member of the opposition Radical Party, has been hospitalised but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, while his bodyguard was killed, according to party leader Oleh Lyashko.

 

Interior Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said investigators were at the scene of the incident, where it appeared a motorcycle had been blown up near the entrance to a TV station.

 

"Altogether four people were wounded in the explosion. Unfortunately, one could not be saved. He died on the way to the hospital from the wounds he received," he said.

 

Kiev police spokeswoman Oksana Blyshchyk said that at 1905 GMT authorities had received information about a car explosion in the Solomensky district of Kiev.

 

There was no immediate word from police on possible suspects or a motive for the attack, but Lyashko said he had no doubt the incident was politically motivated.

 

"The attempt on Mosiychuk's life was linked to his professional activities and political position," he said on Facebook.

 

Since fighting with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014, the number of incidents involving explosives outside the conflict zone has increased, but vehicle bombings are relatively rare.

 

In June, a colonel in Ukraine's military intelligence was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev, while in 2016 a prominent investigative journalist, Pavel Sheremet, was killed by the detonation of an explosive device in his car.

 

Radical Party lawmaker Evhen Deidei posted photos on his Facebook page from the scene of Wednesday's attack which showed the burnt-out shell of a motorcycle in front of a blast-hit vehicle.

 

"Judging by the damage to the car and the shrapnel holes in the doors, the power of the explosion was pretty strong," he said. "There is a lot of blood on the stairs, where Ihor was situated at the time of the explosion."

 

The interior ministry's Shkiryak said political analyst Vitaliy Bala was one of the three wounded in the blast.

 

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Mark Heinrich and James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-26