Russians seek possible accomplices of bomber

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Investigators searched for possible accomplices of a 22-year-old native of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan identified as the suicide bomber in the St. Petersburg subway, as residents came to grips Tuesday with the first major terrorist attack in Russia’s second-largest city since the Soviet collapse.

The bomber, Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, had lived in St. Petersburg for several years, working as a car repairman and later at a sushi bar. Pages on his socialmedia networks reflected his interest in radical Islam and boxing, but those who met Dzhalilov described him as a calm and friendly man.

Russia’s health minister raised the death toll to 14, including the bomber. About 50 others remained hospitalized, some in grave condition. Many were students heading home Monday after classes on one of the city’s busy north-south lines.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which came as President Vladimir Putin was visiting his hometown, raising speculation it could have been timed for his trip. The attack follows a long string of bombings of Russian planes, trains and transportation facilities. Many were linked to radical Islamists.

Before Dzhalilov travelled to St. Petersburg, where he eventually got Russian citizenship, his ethnic Uzbek family lived in Osh, the city in southern Kyrgyzstan that saw more than 400 people killed and thousands injured in clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and minority Uzbeks in 2010.

St. Petersburg has a large diaspora of people from Kyrgyzstan and other mostly Muslim former Soviet republics in Central Asia.