Kiev, Mar 16 (IANS): The death toll of the Russian missile strike on Ukrainian city of Odesa rose to 21, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday as quoted by media reports.

At least 73 people were injured to various degrees of severity as a result of the attack, the Interior Ministry said as quoted by The Kyiv Independent report.

The number of wounded reportedly included at least seven first responders, as well as an unspecified number of police officers.

Klymenko said on Saturday 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 Friday.

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, The Kyiv Independent reported.

During the rescue operation, Russian forces struck the site again.

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