Update: Death toll in Russian missile strike on Odesa rises to 21, at least 73 injured

The death toll of Russia's March 15 missile strike on Odesa rose to 21, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on March 16.  

At least 73 people were injured to various degrees of severity as a result of the attack, the Interior Ministry said. The number of wounded reportedly included at least seven first responders, as well as an unspecified number of police officers.

Klymenko said on March 16 that the death toll had risen to 21 after another wounded person died in the hospital. The death toll previously stood at 20 as of 9:22 p.m. local time on March 15.

According to local council member Andrii Vagapov, Odesa's former deputy mayor, Serhii Tetiukhin, and Oleksandr Hostishchev, the commander of the police special forces battalion Tsunami, were among those killed.

Rescuers immediately arrived at the scene of the impact and began extinguishing the fire, sorting out the debris, and searching for the injured, according to the State Emergency Service. During the rescue operation, Russian forces struck the site again.

Russian forces had launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles from occupied Crimea, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces said.

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The Kyiv IndependentAndrii Kharuk