A huge blast on Russia’s bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it annexed in 2014, has killed three people, investigators say.

The victims were in a nearby car when a lorry blew up, the Russian investigators said, bringing down sections of the bridge’s roadway.

Russia says the railway part of the bridge – where oil tankers caught fire – will reopen on Saturday.

They also claim road traffic will begin on an undamaged lane this evening.

The rail and road crossing opened in 2018 and was a symbol of Russia’s illegal annexation.

An adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, did not directly claim Ukrainian responsibility but wrote: “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning.

“Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled.”