A car has burst into flames outside a top-secret computing centre used by Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The Mercedes ML350 was severely damaged in the blast, with grey smoke pouring from the vehicle as it was gutted by fire.
The vehicle was parked outside the main research computing centre of the Russian president's executive office on Ryabinovaya Street, approximately nine miles west of the Kremlin. The facility provides high-tech support for Putin and his government.
Emergency services rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze. Initial reports indicated the explosion occurred inside the car, which was unoccupied at the time. There were no casualties, and the identity of the owner and the cause of the blast remain unknown.
The incident follows two fatal car explosions in Moscow in December last year. On December 24, three people, including two police officers, were killed in a car blast. That explosion occurred near the site where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed two days earlier when his car exploded on his way to work.
