Russia metro blast toll rises to 14, probe into ‘terror act’ under way
THE death toll from the bombing on a metro train in Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg rose to 14 yesterday, as Kyrgyzstan said a suicide bomber from the Central Asian country had staged the attack.
The Russian imperial capital was beginning the first of three days of mourning and Russian tricolour flags flew at halfmast throughout the city to honour the dead.
Flowers and candles piled up at an impromptu memorial outside the metro station hit by the attack as authorities beefed up security on the city’s busy underground transport system.
Commuters began their daily trip to work under an anxious cloud after Monday’s bombing that closed down the entire metro system that is seen as the lifeblood of the city.
“Everyone in the metro can only think of this,” said 45-year-old Svetlana Golubeva as she entered the underground.
Throughout the city, there was a sense of shock that terror could strike their city that had seemed far from being a target – unlike Paris, Berlin or London.
Even threats to Moscow “seemed far away from us”, said Dmitry Leonov as he picked his way through the candles and flower tributes lining the gates of the station. “Now we’re all under threat,” he said. Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said the toll from the blast had climbed from 11 to 14 yesterday as three people succumbed to their injuries, adding that 49 more people remained in hospital.
Investigators have launched a probe into an “act of terror” but stressed they would look into other possible causes of the blast, which hit a busy central metro line on Monday afternoon. Kyrgyzstan security services said yesterday the attack was staged by a “suicide bomber” named Akbarjon Djalilov, a naturalised Russian citizen born in southern Kyrgyzstan in 1995.
“He is a citizen of Russia,” spokesman Rakhat Sulaimanov said, adding that Kyrgyz security services were “in with Russian security services”.
Russian authorities have not commented on the alleged bomber’s identity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which comes after the Islamic State group called for attacks on Russia in retribution for its military intervention in Syria against the jihadists.
President Vladimir Putin, whose hometown is Saint Petersburg, offered his own condolences and later placed a bouquet of red flowers at the entrance to one of the stations, Technological Institute.
The blast occurred in a train carriage moving between two stations at 2.40pm, said anti-terrorist committee (NAK) spokesman Andrei Przhezdomsky. contact
The NAK committee later confirmed that security services “neutralised” another explosive device found at a second metro station.
The chief of the Saint Petersburg metro, Vladimir Garyugin, said yesterday that quick actions by metro staff prevented a much higher toll and that passengers had helped each other instead of panicking.
The second bomb was a bag containing the explosive device fashioned from a fireextinguisher, he said. “A metro employee quickly cordoned off the area and called in experts,” he said in televised remarks.
Authorities on Monday said the Moscow metro as well as transportation hubs and crowded spots around the country were stepping up security. — AFP