KIEV, Ukraine, May 2 (UPI) -- Bombings that have injured 30 people in a Ukrainian industrial center may have been part of a feud between competing business groups, a security official says.
The unnamed official with the National Security Service said the violence in Dnepropetrovsk began with the assassination of a businessman with suspected criminal ties, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Novosti cited a Ukrainian newspaper, ZN.UA.
"The city is being shaken by a struggle between local business groups with criminal ties," the official said. "Two weeks ago, influential businessman Gennady Akselrod, notorious for his raider activities, was killed. We have every reason to believe that these bombs were not connected with politics."
Ten bombs were set off in the city April 27. Of the 30 people hurt, 11 were teenagers.
Dnepropetrovsk is Ukraine's fourth largest city and a major industrial center that specialized in nuclear and satellite technology when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. It is on the Dnieper River southeast of the capital, Kiev.
