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KGV spokesman comments on Sunday’s bomb explosion near KGB office in Vitsyebsk

A "primitive homemade pyrotechnic device" was exploded near the KGB regional office in Vitsyebsk at 6:48 p.m. on November 11, which led to damage to two windows in the building, Alyaksandr Antanovich, spokesman for Belarus’ Committee for State Security (KGB), told reporters in Minsk on Monday.

“According to preliminary estimates, the pyrotechnic device was hidden inside a metal can of between 0.25 and 0.33 liters and consisted of a cardboard or plastic tube packed with between 50 and 70 grams of a pyrotechnic mixture,” Mr. Antanovich said.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted in connection with the incident under Part Three of the Criminal Code's Article 339, which penalizes "especially malicious hooliganism," the spokesman noted.

Three persons have been arrested in connection with the explosion on the basis of findings of the investigation and eyewitness accounts, Mr. Antanovich said. One of them, a person with visible signs of a mental illness, had earlier phoned the KGB office and made offensive remarks about Belarusian authorities, he said.