Cops Approaching 'Suspicious Individual' Killed in Russia Blast

Three people, including two police officers, were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian investigators said, just days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking general not far away. The two traffic officers were approaching a "suspicious individual" when an explosive device detonated, Investigate Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. The two officers, as well as another person standing nearby, died from their injuries, reports the AP. The New York Times identifies the cops as 24-year-old Ilya Klimanov and 25-year-old Maksim Gorbunov.

Local chatter on Telegram suggests the third fatality may have been the person who planted the device, per the Guardian. Investigators and forensic experts are working at the scene, Petrenko said, per the AP. The incident took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday morning. Sarvarov, the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, died when an explosive device detonated under his vehicle in southern Moscow.