Blasts hit Soviet-era radio antennae in breakaway Moldovan region

Two explosions damaged old Soviet-era radio antennae that broadcast Russian radio from a village in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdniestria on Tuesday, local authorities said.

The incident could fuel tensions in the unrecognised Moscow-backed sliver of land that borders Ukraine's southwestern rim. Russia has had troops permanently based there since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"In the early morning of April 26, two explosions occurred in the village of Maiac, Grigoriopol district: the first at 6:40 and the second at 7:05," the region's interior ministry said.

No residents were hurt, but two radio antennae were knocked out, it said.

It said the radio station broadcast Russian radio.

There was no immediate comment from Moldova's foreign ministry.

The incident was the second reported in the region in a matter of hours.

The TSV television station reported on Monday that a series of blasts had torn through the ministry of state security in the capital of Transdniestria. Officials from the breakaway region's interior ministry said the building had been fired on by unknown assailants with grenade launchers, TSV said.

(Reuters)