Three explosive devices were thrown at Russias Consulate General in the southern French port city of Marseille, French media reported Monday, citing sources in law enforcement.Only two of the explosive devices were believed to have gone off after they were tossed at the consulates facade, an unnamed police official told Le Monde.
A bomb squad was sent to defuse the remaining undetonated bomb,French broadcaster BFMTV reported.No injuries or damage have been reported, though Russias Consul General in Marseille, Stanislav Oransky, confirmed the explosion and said firefighters were responding to the scene.According to BFMTV,Oransky and all other diplomatic staff were forced to waitinside the consulate for bomb disposal experts to defuse the explosive device that did not detonate.
Around 30 firefighters and police officers were deployed to the site, it added.Earlier, media reported that unidentified assailants threw two Molotov cocktails into the consulates garden.
However, law enforcement authorities later ruled out that Molotov cocktails were used in the attack.According to journalist Nicolas Boutin of Valeurs Actuelles, who cited anonymous police sources, authorities were investigating a stolen vehicle found nearby.Russias Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the explosion a terrorist act and urged French authorities to conduct a thorough investigation, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.Frances Foreign Ministry condemned the incident.The inviolability, protection and integrity of diplomatic and consular premises, as well as their personnel, are fundamental principles of international law,a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters.