Putin says supermarket explosion a terror attack

RUSSIA: The explosion at a supermarket in Russia’s second-largest city was a terror attack, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday, adding that he has ordered security agencies to kill terror suspects on the spot if they resist arrest.

Officials said 13 people were injured on Thursday when an improvised explosive device went off at a storage area for customers’ bags at the supermarket in St Petersburg.

Investigators said the device contained 200 grams of explosives and was rigged with shrapnel to cause more damage.

While Russian law enforcement agencies stopped short of immediately describing the blast as a terror attack, Putin did not mince words yesterday at a Kremlin awards ceremony for Russian troops who fought in Syria.

‘‘You know that yesterday a terror attack was conducted in St Petersburg,’' Putin said.

He went on to note that another attack was thwarted recently, a reference to an alleged series of bombings in St Petersburg that a CIA tip helped prevent, according to the Kremlin.

Putin said he told the chief of Russia’s main domestic security agency, the FSB, that agents who encounter resistance from terror suspects should ‘‘liquidate bandits on the spot.’'

No-one has claimed responsibility for the supermarket bomb. Eight of the injured remained hospitalised.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, would not offer any specifics on what led Putin to declare the attack an act of terrorism. The shrapnel that was part of the explosive device proved the explosion ‘‘was a terror attack anyway.’'

Storage boxes at all Perekrestok supermarkets in St Petersburg were removed following the attack. Other chains said they would tighten security measures.

Earlier this month, Putin telephoned United States President Donald Trump to thank him for what the Kremlin described as a CIA tip that prevented more bombings in St Petersburg, Putin’s hometown.

The Federal Security Service said seven suspects linked to the Islamic State group were arrested in connection to the alleged plot. The Kremlin said the suspects had planned to bomb Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites.

In April, a suicide bombing in St Petersburg’s subway left 16 people dead and wounded more than 50. Russian authorities identified the bomber as a 22-year-old Kyrgyz-born Russian national.

During his remarks at the Kremlin awards ceremony, Putin said Russia’s two-year military campaign in Syria helped eliminate militants who threatened Russia.

He has previously said that more than 4000 citizens from Russia and some 5000 people from other ex-Soviet nations have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. ‘‘What would have happened if those hundreds, thousands ... had come back to us, trained, armed and well-prepared?’ ' Putin said.