Kiev - An estimated 32 people were injured Tuesday in a pair of explosions in a bank in the eastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Ministry of Emergency Situations officials said. The two blasts struck a branch office of the major Ukrainian bank Sberbank, blowing out building and nearby automobile windows, and scattering debris over a nearby sidewalk and road where a number of passersby were injured.
Two men entering the bank shortly before the explosions left packages in the bank, one by the door and one near the tellers, the Interfax news agency reported citing eyewitnesses.
The men reportedly exited the bank shortly before the detonations. Six persons - four bank workers and two bank customers - were in the bank at the time of the blasts, according to news reports.
One witness, Volodymyr Kitaev, told Melitopolskie Vedemosti newspaper he heard three loud bangs each 1 - 2 minutes apart as he was driving near the Sberbank office.
The second detonation caused substantial smoke but little fire, he said.
Three automobiles in the vicinity of the blasts were damaged, according to a Unian news agency report.
Three of the victims - two customers and a bank worker - received severe injuries from flying debris and required immediate surgery, said Ihor Krol, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman.
A total six persons had been hospitalized in serious condition, and 22 persons including two children aged seven years and 18 months required hospital treatment, Krol said.
Some of the adult victims "weren't hurt physically, but required treatment for stress," said Ihor Maslov, a hospital spokesman, according to a Melitopolskie Vedemosti newspaper article.
Officials from the Zaporizhia city government appealed for donors to give blood to the city hospital, according to a Korrespondent magazine report.
Ukraine's second-largest bank Sberbank is a government-owned financial institution responsible for payment of most pensions and government salaries.
Crowds usually are heavy in Sberbank branch offices in the early days of a month, when pension and government salary pay checks are first made available.
