At least 17 people were killed on Wednesday in an explosion at a technical college in the city of Kerch on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a Russian anti-terror committee representative said.

"According to provisional information, 17 people died, and 50 were injured," National Anti-Terror Committee spokesman Andrei Przhedomskikh told official news agency TASS, adding that the building was evacuated and cordoned off after the "explosion".

Russian state news agencies citing the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the blast was the result of an unidentified explosive device. "In Kerch, an unidentified explosive device exploded," a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorism Committee was quoted as saying by TASS state news agency.