MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Three people have died in an explosion of a Mercedes car near Moscow on a highway regularly used by Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov.
"The controlled landmine exploded at about 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday near the Zarya cantonment (Balashikha district) where the personnel of the Air Force headquarters live," a source in law enforcement told Interfax.
Mikhailov was not injured, the source said.
He said the landmine was camouflaged as a speed bump near the boiler house of the cantonment.
The explosion killed director of the Aktofud meat trading company, his bodyguard and the driver of the Mercedes-E 320 car. The driver and security officer in a Lada Samara escort car were not injured, the source said.
The source said Mikhailov and all top officers from the Air Force headquarters and staff regularly use the road.
In their turn sources in the Air Force staff told Interfax that on Sunday six Chechens were stopped near Zarya and firearms and explosives were confiscated from them.
The office of the Moscow region prosecutor confirmed the explosion of the Mercedes and the death of three people. "A criminal case has been opened into the incident and region prosecutor Eduard Denisov has left for the site," first deputy prosecutor Alexander Mitusov told Interfax on Monday. He also drove to the crime scene.