On a motorway close to Moscow, a truckload of fireworks that were “intended for an oligarch party” detonated.
Dramatic video captured the explosion that occurred close to Podolsk after a caravan disconnected and caught fire.
A witness reported seeing “huge fire, fireworks exploding and shooting in all directions.”
The 450-mile-long, major Crimea Highway was totally closed.
It partially links the Russian capital to Crimea, illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin from Ukraine in 2014.
One version is that the fireworks – worth thousands of pounds – were intended for an elite party.
Rich Russians have been criticised for continuing to flaunt their wealth despite the war in Ukraine killing tens of thousands sent to their deaths by dictator Putin.
‘There were no casualties as a result of the incident,’ reported Izvestia.
Police were probing the cause of the firework explosion which came at midnight.
It comes after a fire ripped through the Russian defence building as Vladimir Putin carried out secret talks with Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko.
As the two leaders met, emergency services swarmed to the blaze at a defence ministry building at 19 Znamenka Street, Moscow.
Around 50 people were evacuated, with the cause of the fire currently unconfirmed.