Monaco (AFP) - Authorities across Europe were hunting Friday for a Ukrainian woman suspected of planting a bomb in Monaco that wounded three people, including a Ukrainian-born tycoon and his teenaged son.

Identified as Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, the suspect is wanted in Monaco for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy over the explosion on Monday, according to an Interpol Red Notice.

German law enforcement said they searched her rented apartment near the western city of Frankfurt on Thursday.

“The woman being sought is currently on the run,” they said, adding that evidence would be handed over to Monaco.

After the explosion, she is believed to have walked to the nearby French town of Beausoleil, where she retrieved her rental car and drove through Italy to Germany, her last known country of residence, Morgan Raymond, Monaco’s deputy public prosecutor, told reporters.

“The relative sophistication of the explosive device and the modus operandi appear to indicate that the person who planted the device did not act alone,” the prosecutor said, confirming that the individual was “a woman posing as a man”.

Eric Arella, Monaco’s police chief, said the suspect was identified in 53 hours thanks to “an exceptional mobilisation by Monaco’s public security personnel”, also stressing cooperation with countries including France.

Ukrainian authorities said they had launched an investigation since the woman and child were Ukrainian citizens.

The bombing has sent shockwaves through Monaco, an ultra-secure microstate near Nice in southern France that is a playground of the world’s ultra-rich. Prince Albert II has described the attack as a “heinous crime”.

- Tattoo on right arm -

Authorities have not confirmed the victims’ identities, but according to several sources, the attack targeted Vadym Yermolaiev, 58, a wealthy businessman originally from Ukraine and now a Cypriot national, as well as his partner and his 13-year-old son.

On Monday evening, an individual left a package in the entrance hall of an apartment building near the French border.

Shortly afterwards, an explosive device went off in the hall just as three residents – a couple and a child – were entering.

The suspect, who was captured on CCTV wearing a black fisherman’s hat, was initially believed to be a man.

But a review of surveillance footage and testimony from a person who came into contact with the suspect led investigators to focus on a woman who had allegedly conducted several reconnaissance visits in the days before the explosion, Raymond said.

On the evening of the attack, she is thought to have waited on a bench before placing an explosive device – taken out of a shopping bag – at the entrance of the building.

At 8:58 pm, she detonated it remotely as the trio returned from dinner.

The suspect with dark shoulder-length hair appears in two photographs released by Interpol.

The notice says the woman has a tattoo on her right arm, “possibly” depicting a snake, and that she speaks German.

- Woman’s life in danger -

The couple received particularly serious injuries.

A source initially said the man had suffered severe burns and the woman was in critical condition.

The child was admitted in non-critical condition to a children’s hospital in Nice, while the two adults were taken to the Nice University Hospital.

Yermolaiev’s condition stabilised, but as of Friday, his partner’s life was still in danger.

A resident of Monaco since at least 2021, Yermolaiev has since December 2023 been subject to sanctions in Ukraine over his business activities in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia.

In 2021, the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $220 million, ranking him the country’s 45th richest person.

A source told AFP that people would have been lining up to gun down the construction magnate in Dnipro, the industrial Ukrainian city where he made his wealth.

The magnate’s 35-year-old son Artur Yermolaiev is believed to also have made a long list of enemies.

He was convicted of fraud in Estonia this year, where he pleaded guilty to running a fake investment phone scam out of Ukraine that obtained around 100 million euros through fraud.

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