Police hunt fugitive after blast in Monaco wounds several

June 29, 2026 5:35 PM EDT

Police officers stand guard after an explosion was reported, on Boulevard d'Italie, in Monaco, June 30, 2026. REUTERS/Manon Cruz

MONACO, June 29 (Reuters) - Police ‌in Monaco ​and ​neighbouring France were searching on Tuesday for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb in Monaco ‌that wounded several people, a local official said, while ⁠French and Ukrainian media reported that a Ukrainian-born oligarch was the intended ‌target.

Two of the victims suffered ‌life-threatening injuries from Monday evening's attack, Christophe Mirmand, minister of state of Monaco, told BFM TV.

BFM TV and Le ​Figaro newspaper said the target of the attack was Vadym Yermolaiev, who was a major real estate developer in ⁠Dnipro. He left Ukraine several years ago, renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a ​citizen of Cyprus. He was placed under Ukrainian sanctions in December 2023.

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) on Monday 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, ⁠while Prince Albert of Monaco ‌described the attack as "an ​odious act."

(Reporting by Manon Cruz and Layli Foroudi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Sudip Kar-Gupta and Louise ‌Heavens)



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