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Explosion in Ukraine's Odessa Destroys Railroad Bridge but Misses Train

An explosion in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa hit a railway bridge shortly before a train was to cross it, news reports said, in the latest in a series of blasts in this Black Sea port.

No injuries were reported in the explosion early Thursday in the Slobodka district, as the train stopped a few dozen yards from the site of the blast, which left a meter-wide sinkhole, the Timer news portal reported.

A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian nationalist political organization Right Sector, Varvara Chernoivanenko, credited one of the group's activists with stopping the train by running out on the rail line and waving a flashlight, according to an account on her Facebook page.

The city has seen a series of bombings in recent months.

Ukraine's Security Service has identified suspects in 16 “terrorist attacks” committed in Odessa since last year, but another five bombings remain unsolved, the agency's regional chief Serhiy Batrakov said two weeks ago.

Odessa was also the site of deadly clashes between pro-Moscow and pro-European activists last May. More than 40 people were killed during the violence, most of whom were caught in a building that was set on fire.

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