10 die in Russia train explosion
Authorities shut all metro stations after terrorist attack
TEN people were killed and more than 20 injured when an explosion tore through a train carriage in a St Petersburg metro tunnel yesterday.
Authorities called it a probable terrorist attack and Russian news media reported that police were searching for a man recorded on surveillance cameras.
The attack coincided with a visit to the city by President Vladimir Putin.
A grainy photograph published by the Fontanka news outlet showed a middle-aged man with a beard and black hat.
Interfax news agency cited unnamed sources saying the bomb, packed with shrapnel, may have been hidden in a train carriage inside a briefcase.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said an explosive device had been found at a different metro station, hidden under a fire extinguisher, but had been made safe.
The Investigative Committee, a state body which investigates major crimes, opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism.
Russia has been the target in the past of numerous bomb attacks, frequently targeting public transport. Most were blamed on Islamist rebels from Russia’s North Caucasus region.
Soon after the blast at 2.40pm local time, ambulances and fire engines descended on the concreteand-glass Sennaya Ploshchad metro station as a helicopter hovered overhead.
The blast raised security fears beyond Russian frontiers.
France, which has itself suffered a series of attacks, announced additional security measures in Paris.
Video from the scene of yesterday’s blast showed injured people lying bleeding on a platform, some being treated by emergency services and fellow passengers.
“I saw a lot of smoke, a crowd making its way to the escalators, people with blood,” St Petersburg resident Leonid Chaika, who said he was at the station where the blast happened, told reporters by phone. “Many were crying.” A huge hole was blown open in the side of a carriage with metal wreckage strewn across the platform. Passengers were seen hammering at the windows of one closed carriage.
Russian TV said many had cuts from glass shards and metal, the force of the explosion maximised by the confines of the carriage and the tunnel.
Officials said earlier that the death toll was nine, but the health minister later revised that upwards to 10 dead.
Authorities closed all St Petersburg metro stations.
The Moscow metro said it was taking unspecified additional security measures in case of an attack there. — Reuters