Black widow strikes
MOSCOW—A female suicide bomber killed at least 17 people Sunday in an attack on themain train station of the southern Russian city of Volgograd, heightening security fears just six weeks before the Sochi Olympic Games.
Investigators said the unidentified woman set off her charge after being stopped by a police officer at themetal detectors of the central entrance to the station when it was packed with people traveling to celebrate the New Year.
Footage captured by a nearby camera showed a huge orange fireball blow out the heavy front doors and windows from the grey stone three-story building. Thick billows of smoke then poured out as people scattered along the rain-soaked street.
Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin said officials had launched an inquiry into a suspected “act of terror.” It was the deadliest attack in Russia in almost three years.
“A suicide bomber who was approaching a metal detector saw a law enforcement official and, after growing nervous, set off an explosive device,” Markin said in televised comments.
Doctors and police said 17 people were killed and nearly 45 injured by the explosive equivalent of more than 10 kilograms of TNT.
Russia’s interior ministry said it was immediately stepping up security at all the nation’s main train stations and airports.
“These measures involve a greater police presence and more detailed passenger checks,” an interior ministry spokesperson told the Interfax news agency.
The Volgograd government also introduced a heightened terror alert level in the region for the coming two weeks.
The lifenews.ru website published a picture of what it said was the head of the young female bomber lying amid a pile of debris with her long brown hair spread across the floor.
The website and state-run RIA Novosti identified the bomber as a Dagestani woman named Oksana Aslanova, who had been married to two different Islamists killed in battles with federal forces.
Investigators added that she may have been assisted in her attack by a man they identified only by the last name of Pavlov.
Female suicide bombers are often referred to in Russia as “black widows”—women who seek to avenge the deaths of their family members in the fighting by targeting Russian civilians.
The city, known as Stalingrad in the Soviet era, was already attacked on Oct. 21 by a female suicide bomber with links to Islamists.
That strike killed six people aboard a crowded bus and prompted the authorities to refocus their attention on the security measures being taken ahead of the Feb. 7-23 Winter Games in Sochi.