An explosion has taken place at the Russian consulate in the French city of Marseille. The details of the incident are unconfirmed, although the local BFM news outlet has reported that around 30 firefighters are at the scene along with police.
The explosion was also reported by the Valeurs news outlet, which claimed it occurred at around 7:30am local time on Monday. The outlet said the blast did not cause any casualties and only resulted in material damage.
In a post on X, Valeurs journalist Nicolas Boutin cited police sources as saying that two Molotov cocktails had been thrown into the garden of the consulate. Law enforcement officers are also reportedly investigating a stolen vehicle found near the scene.
The La Marseillaise newspaper has cited the Russian consul general in the city, Stanislav Oranskiy, as confirming that an explosion had taken place inside the consulate and that firefighters have entered the building.
While the details of the incident remain unclear, it comes after Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Agency (SVR) warned last week that the country’s diplomatic missions in Europe could become the targets of Ukrainian “terrorist attacks.”
The service suggested that Kiev is “extremely reluctant” to reach any sort of settlement with Russia that would involve “excessive concessions” from Ukraine. It also warned that Ukrainian operatives could try to derail Russia-US talks by attacking Moscow’s embassies in countries such as Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, as well as the Baltic states and Nordic nations.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the reported incident has all the characteristics of a terrorist attack. She added that Moscow will demand that the French authorities conduct a thorough investigation and boost security at Russian institutions in the country.
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