The committee said in a statement “an explosive device was triggered” when the officers approached a “suspicious person” near their police vehicle on Yeletskaya Street in the south of the capital, The Guardian reported.

A crime scene has been established and CCTV footage is being reviewed, said officials.

Images broadcast on Russian television showed an area cordoned off and a large police presence. Witnesses were quoted as describing an explosion that occurred at about 1:30 am local time.

A senior Russian general, Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, was killed this week when a bomb exploded under his car in southern Moscow, according to Russian investigators. They described the death of the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian military’s general staff as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. Sarvarov’s car exploded while driving along Yaseneva Street at about 7:00 am on Monday.

MNA