Interfax: Donetsk center shelled repeatedly on Thursday

DONETSK. Oct 3 (Interfax) – There has been a series of explosions in the Donetsk center, an Interfax correspondent said on Thursday.

Presumably, it was shells fired by Ukrainian servicemen that exploded.

In turn, representatives of Second Republican Channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told Interfax about the Ukrainian army’s bombardment of the channel’s head office. “Several shells have hit our editorial department. It difficult to assess the damage as of yet because the entire personnel are staying in a shelter,” a representative said.

The Interfax correspondent quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Ukrainian artillery shells had hit Universitetska Street and the Donbas-Arena stadium area. Lyvytsky was bombarded too.

“Presumably, the city came under an Uragan rocket launcher attack. A dud shell is sticking out of the ground,” a source in the militia headquarters told Interfax.

Some windows were smashed in the head office of the Republic-2 television company in the Donbas-Arena stadium area.

There have been no casualty reports as of yet.

Meanwhile, the city authorities’ website reported Thursday bombardments of Donetsk.

“Tensions persisted in Donetsk as of 6:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. Moscow time). The city center – the Voroshilovsky and Kyivsky districts – were shelled at 5:50 p.m. Reportedly, the shells damaged a residential building at 100, Universitetska Street and an administrative building at 10, Mira Avenue. Emergency Situations Ministry teams are working on those locations,” the report said.

Another shell hit the premises of the first trolley depot at 98, Shchorsa Street but did not explode.

Information about possible casualties is being updated.

Public transport service has been suspended for the day because of high levels of instability, the report noted.