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Woman Injured in Komi Police Training Center Explosion Dies at Hospital

The Interior Ministry training center in Syktyvkar following a stun grenade explosion. Natalia Kazakovtseva / TASS

A woman injured last week in an explosion and fire at an Interior Ministry training center in northern Russia’s republic of Komi died at a local hospital on Monday.

Two dozen people were injured at the training center in Komi’s capital of Syktyvkar on Thursday after a police instructor detonated a stun grenade during a lesson. Sparks from the blast set fire to part of the building’s interior, prompting an evacuation of the center.

Health officials said Monday that a woman who was injured in the blast and hospitalized in critical condition died from her injuries earlier in the day. Another 17 people remain hospitalized in Syktyvkar, officials said, with two in “extremely grave” condition.

Six of the most severely injured victims were transferred to the Vishnevsky Institute and the Interior Ministry’s main hospital in Moscow.

Police arrested the training center instructor who set off the stun grenade. A court ordered him to be placed under house arrest, charging him with abuse of power and negligence resulting in death.

The head of the Interior Ministry training center was suspended from his duties at the facility and later arrested on the same charges as the instructor.

Correction: an earlier version of this article mistakenly identified the victim who died on Monday as a man.

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