Russia reels in shock

METRO TRAIN HIT: ACT OF TERROR THAT KILLED 11 UNDER INVESTIGATION

Kyrgyzstan said a suicide bomber from Central Asian nation was responsible.

Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg was in mourning yesterday after an explosion in the metro system killed 11 people and injured dozens, as Kyrgyzstan said a suicide bomber from the Central Asian nation was responsible.

Russian tricolour flags flew at half-mast as the city observed the first of three days of mourning.

Heightened security measures were imposed in the metro system, which has reopened, but the attack still weighed heavy on commuters.

“Everyone in the metro can only think of this,” said 45-yearold Svetlana Golubeva as she entered the Saint Petersburg underground.

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. Spokesperson Rakhat Sulaimanov said in Bishkek that Kyrgyz security services are “in contact 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. –