Seven military personnel were injured in an explosion at the Budyonny Military Academy of the Signal Corps in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Military District said Friday evening.
The blast was said to have been caused by a piece of ammunition dating back to the Second World War which went off.
"On May 17, 2024 at about 8 pm Moscow time, an explosion occurred on the territory of the Budyonny Military Academy of the Signal Corps during the cleaning of one of the basement areas while unloading trash into a container. As a result of the explosion, seven military personnel were injured. All the victims were taken to a Russian Defense Ministry medical facility, where they received all the necessary medical care," the Leningrad Military District's press service said in a statement.
A spokesperson from the press service of the Kalininsky District administration, where the academy is located, earlier told Sputnik that emergency services had been deployed to the area. Local residents spotted ambulances and firefighting vehicles at the scene. Police and forces from the Russian National Guard were also deployed to the area.
Local media indicated that all of the seven injured were conscious, and that they were taken to be treated to the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy. No fatalities were reported.
Leningrad Region governor Alexander Beglov said in a social media post that the incident at the academy was in the "area of responsibility of the Military of Defense, and is not of a terrorist nature." He urged the public to trust only official information.
The Budyonny Military Academy of the Signal Corps is one of Russia's oldest and most prestigious officer schools, training forces for the Russian Signal Troops - responsible for ensuring communications for the Russian Ground Forces. The academy was formed in 1919, and earned the status of a military university in 1998.
The Signal Troops have played a critical role in the ongoing Russia-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, with the ability to stably provide secure, jam-proof communications proving especially important in the technology-heavy, industrial scale conflict.