Lenin statue destroyed

MOSCOW, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Russian authorities say no one was injured Saturday when vandals blew up a statue of Lenin in Ryazan.

The bomb contained an estimated 200 grams of the explosive TNT, reported RIA Novosti.

"As a result of the blast, the 2-meter (2-yard) alabaster monument was completely destroyed. An investigation is being carried out," a police source told the Russian news agency.

Last month, police in the Volga city of Nizhny Novgorod arrested a "slightly drunk" man as he tried to pull the head off a statue of Lenin, who organized the Bolshevik Revolution, RIA Novosti reported, noting the man succeeded only in tearing off Lenin's right arm.

Lenin's embalmed body has been on display in a glass case in Moscow's Red Square since his death in 1924. Protests against his continued presence have escalated throughout the former Soviet Union since its breakup in 1991.