PARIS, June 29 (Reuters) – Police in Monaco and neigbouring France were hunting for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb in the centre of the Mediterranean principality on Monday and wounding several people, a local official said.
Two of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, Christophe Mirmand, minister of state of Monaco, told BFM TV.
French emergency services deployed to the scene to provide back up and a joint police operation was underway to track down the fugitive, France’s interior ministry said.
“No event of this nature has ever happened in the Principality before,” Mirmand told the French news channel.
The blast occurred shortly before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) in the centre of Monaco, a tax-free microstate on the French Riviera known as a haven for billionaires and their luxury yachts.
French newspaper Le Figaro said video surveillance images showed a man dropping a backpack at the entrance of a residential building shortly before the explosion.
BFM TV described the explosive device as a “parcel bomb”, citing the principality’s prosecutor general.
Eric Ciotti, the right-wing mayor of nearby Nice, across the border in France, said on X: “The attack committed this evening is a tragedy for Monaco.”
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi; Editing by Richard Lough and Sanjeev Miglani)
