BACKPACK BOMBER
TERROR BLAST TOLL RISES TO 14 City’s tears for victims of St Petersburg atrocity as investigators name terrorist
A BACKPACK bomber born in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan was behind the St Petersburg subway blast that killed 14 people, Russian investigators have said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Monday afternoon attack, which came while President Vladimir Putin was visiting the city, where he was born.
Russia’s health minister yesterday said the death toll had risen from 11 to 14 and said 49 people were still in hospital. Authorities did not say whether the 22-year-old suicide attacker was included in the toll.
Officials said there were several foreign nationals among those killed and injured. The foreign ministry of Kazakhstan said one of their citizens had died in the attack.
Residents have been bringing flowers to the stations near where the blast occurred. Every corner at Sennaya Square station was covered with red and white carnations.
Investigators said the bomb was set off by Kyrgyzborn Russian citizen Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, who turned 22 two days before the attack.
The investigative committee said forensic experts found the man’s DNA on the bag with a bomb that was found and deactivated at another subway station on Monday.
In Kyrgyzstan, the State Committee for National Security confirmed the man’s identity and said they would help the Russians.
Authorities are said to believe the suspect was linked to radical Islamic groups and carried the explosive device on to 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. Yesterday morning the subway was almost deserted as many residents opted for buses.
Viktoria Prishchepova, who did take the subway, said: “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.”
Monday’s explosion
I travelled the route this morning. You feel the thin line between life and death OLEG ALEXEYEV
happened as the train travelled between stations on one of the city’s northsouth lines.
The driver appeared in front of reporters yesterday.
Alexander Kavernin, 50, who has worked on the subway for 14 years, said he heard the sound of a blast, called security and carried on to the next station as the emergency instructions prescribe.
“I had no time to think about fear,” he said.
The decision to keep moving was praised by authorities, who said it helped evacuation efforts and reduced the danger to passengers who would have had to walk along electrified tracks.
Oleg Alexeyev, 53, who trains police sniffer dogs, went to the Technological Institute station yesterday to lay flowers in memory of those who died.
He said: “I travelled on the same route this morning just to see how it felt. You begin to feel the thin line between life and death.”
Four stations were closed again yesterday due to a bomb threat, but reopened.
People from Kyrgyzstan and other central Asian former Soviet republics are common in St Petersburg, home to a large number of migrants who flee poverty and unemployment for jobs in Russia.
While most Central Asian migrants in Russia hold temporary work permits or work illegally, thousands have Russian citizenship.
Russian authorities have rejected calls to impose visas on central Asian nationals, hinting that millions of jobless men crossing the border would be a bigger security threat.
In the past two decades, Russian trains and planes have been frequent targets of attack.
The last attack was in October 2015 when Isis militants downed a Russian airliner heading from Egypt to St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.