Kiev, Ukraine - A bomb blast Wednesday at a southern Orthodox church in Ukraine has killed one person and wounded eight, officials said
A homemade explosive device detonated near the entrance to the church, in the southern city of Zaporozhye, Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Barysheva told The Associated Press. She said nine people had been wounded, one gravely. A duty nurse at a Zaporozhye hospital, Irina Sergeyenko, later said one blast victim had died.
The blast comes on the day the former Soviet nation marks the anniversary of its conversion to Christianity in 988 AD.
Nationalist groups have protested the visit of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kiril, who is on the second to last day of an eight-day visit. There was no official word of a motive.