Aleksandr Thinkevych, a former lieutenant of the Russian Security Service, was detained by special police officers near the site of the explosion. He and three others were taken to hospital but later released.

The site of the blast is a relatively remote backwater in the heart of Moscow’s central Moscow neighbourhood, where Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a state of the nation speech to the nation on Thursday night.

Moscow’s transport system was briefly closed for several hours on Thursday after the explosion and police shut down schools in areas around the blast scene.

At least 13 police officers were wounded in the blast, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Vladimir Markin.

The blast and its fallout were reminiscent of a series of high-profile Russian explosions that have rattled the country in recent months.

In October a huge blast in the southern Moscow suburb of Volgograd killed 34 people at a nightclub.

Earlier this month, a bomb ripped through the packed car park of a shopping centre in the northern Russia city of Murmansk, killing three shoppers and injuring dozens.

On July 29, an explosive device exploded near a Moscow bus station killing 14 people and setting a shopping centre on fire, including the nearby metro stop.

(AFP)

Date created : 2016-08-25