10 dead, 50+ injured in Russia Metro explosion
Investigators probing all possible angles
At least 10 people were killed in a blast on a metro train in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Monday. “According to tentative information, 10 people were killed in the metro blast,” the press secretary to the St Petersburg governor was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. The governor’s office said 50 people were injured.
Life News website showed pictures of blown-out train doors and injured people on a station platform. A Reuters witness saw eight ambulances near Sennaya Ploshchad metro station.
Interfax quoted a source as saying that a suicide bomber was not responsible for the blast and it was most likely that an IED was planted in the train carriage. “An evacuation from the stations is ongoing, there are people injured,” St Petersburg metro said in a statement, adding, “An unidentified object supposedly blew up in a (train) carriage.”
Russia’s National AntiTerrorism Committee said it has found and deactivated a bomb at another St. Petersburg subway station.
All metro stations in the northern Russian city were closed after the blast.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was informed about the blast. Putin is visiting the city and is expected to hold talks with the Belarusian President. Putin said the cause of the blast was not clear and efforts were underway to find out. He said he was considering all possibilities, including terrorism.
Moscow metro authorities beefed up security after the blast in St Petersburg. “The Moscow metro is taking additional security measures according to federal legislation on Russia’s transport security,” said a statement posted on the Telegram social network.
Russia has been the target of attacks by Chechen militants in past years. Chechen rebel leaders have frequently threatened further attacks. At least 38 people were killed in 2010 when two female suicide bombers detonated bombs on packed Moscow metro trains.
Later, an undetonated improvised explosive device was discovered by investigators at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station and defused by specialists. They rejected media reports which claimed that more explosions than one occurred, saying no evidence supporting this was found.
Alleged photos of the IED surfaced on social media. They show a medium-sized leather bag, which apparently held a container filled with explosives, with ball bearings wrapped around it. Facebook has activated its Safety Check feature for users in St Petersburg. It allows people to let friends and family know that they are OK during a disaster or dangerous situation.