St. Petersburg blast was a suicide attack: officials
Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen identified as suspect; death toll climbs to 14
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — A suicide bomber was behind a blast on the St. Petersburg subway that killed 14 people, Russian investigators said Tuesday, while authorities in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan identified a suspect as a Kyrgyz-born Russian citizen.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Monday afternoon attack, which came while President Vladimir Putin was visiting the city, Russia’s second biggest and Putin’s hometown.
Russia’s health minister on Tuesday raised the death toll from 11 to 14 and said 49 people are still hospitalized.
Residents have been bringing flowers to the stations near where the blast occurred. Every corner and windowsill at the ornate, Soviet-built Sennaya Square station on Tuesday was covered with red and white carnations.
Russia’s top investigative body said in a statement that investigators have identified a man whose body parts were found on the train and who is suspected to be a suicide bomber. Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security identified one suspect as Kyrgyz-born Russian national Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, aged between 21 and 22. It was not immediately clear if the two statements related to the same person.
The Interfax news agency on Monday said authorities believe the suspect was linked to radical Islamic groups and carried the explosive device onto the train in a backpack.
The entire subway system in St. Petersburg, a city of five million, was shut down and evacuated before partial service resumed six hours later. Typically crowded during the rush hour, the subway on Tuesday morning looked almost deserted as many residents opted for buses.
“First, I was really scared,” said Viktoria Prishchepova who did take the subway on Tuesday. “I didn’t want to go anywhere on the metro because I was nervous. Everyone was calling their loved ones yesterday, checking if they were OK and how everyone was going to get home.”
Monday’s explosion occurred as the train travelled between stations on one of the city’s north-south lines. The driver appeared in front of reporters on Tuesday looking tired but not visibly shaken by the events of the previous day.
Alexander Kavernin, 50, who has worked on the subway for 14 years, said he heard the sound of a blast while his train was running, called security and carried on to the next station as the emergency instructions prescribe.
“I had no time to think about fear at that moment,” he said.
The decision to keep moving was praised by authorities as aiding evacuation efforts and reducing the danger to passengers who would have had to walk along the electrified tracks.
Oleg Alexeyev, 53, who trains sniffer dogs for the police, went to the Technological Institute station Tuesday morning to lay flowers in memory of those who died nearby.
“I travelled on the same route this morning just to see how it felt and think about life. You begin to feel the thin line about life and death,” he said.
In the past two decades, Russian trains and planes have been frequent targets of attack, usually blamed on Islamic militants.