The train carriage targeted in the explosion is pictured at the Technological Institute metro station in Saint Petersburg on April 3, 2017. STR / AFP
The train carriage targeted in the explosion is pictured at the Technological Institute metro station in Saint Petersburg on April 3, 2017. STR / AFP
The train carriage targeted in the explosion is pictured at the Technological Institute metro station in Saint Petersburg on April 3, 2017. STR / AFP
The train carriage targeted in the explosion is pictured at the Technological Institute metro station in Saint Petersburg on April 3, 2017. STR / AFP

Bomb tears though St Petersburg metro, killing at least 10 people


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ST PETERSBURG // A bomb blast tore through a metro train in Russia’s second-largest city on Monday, killing 10 people and injuring about 40 during a visit by president Vladimir Putin. Hours later, police found an unexploded device at one of the network’s busiest stations.

The entire metro system was shut down and evacuated after the blast and security was tightened at all of the country’s key transportation sites.

The bomb detonated at 2.40pm as the train was travelling between stations, but the driver continued to the next stop. Pictures screened on national television showed the door of a train carriage blown out, as bloodied bodies lay strewn on a station platform.

Health officials said seven people were killed on the spot and three others died of their injuries later.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. The Interfax news agency said law enforcement agencies were searching for two suspects, and state TV showed a photo of one possible suspect wearing what appeared to be a skullcap characteristic of Muslim regions in the former Soviet Union.

President Putin, who was in St Petersburg to meet Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, said investigators were looking into whether the explosion on the train was a terror attack or if it had some other cause. He offered his condolences to the families of those killed.

St Petersburg announced three days of mourning in the city.

The President, Sheikh Khalifa, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, sent messages of condolence to the Russian president.

Witnesses said the blast spread panic among passengers, who ran toward the exits of the station, which is 40 metres underground.

“Everything was covered in smoke, there were a lot of firefighters,” said Maria Smirnova, a student on a train behind the one in which a bomb went off. “Firefighters shouted at us to run for the exit and everyone ran. Everyone was panicking.”

Within two hours of the blast, authorities found and deactivated another bomb at the Vosstaniya Square metro station. The station is a major transfer point for passengers on two lines and serves the railway station from which most trains to Moscow depart.

Russian law enforcement agencies confirmed the Vosstaniya Square device was rigged with shrapnel and the Interfax news agency said it contained up to one kilogram of explosives.

Russian trains and planes have been targeted repeatedly by extremist militants, mostly connected to the insurgency in Chechnya and other Caucasus republics. The last confirmed attack was in October 2015 when ISIL militants downed a Russian airliner heading from an Egyptian resort, killing all 224 people on board.

The December 25 crash of a Russian plane carrying Red Army Choir members near the southern city of Sochi is widely believed to have been due to a bomb, but no official cause has been stated for the crash that killed 92 people.

Suicide bombings in the Moscow subway on March 29, 2010, killed 40 people and wounded more than 100 people. Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the attack by two female suicide bombers, warning Russian leaders that “the war is coming to their cities”.

A Moscow-to-St Petersburg train was bombed on November 27, 2009, in an attack that left 26 dead and about 100 injured. Umarov’s group also said he ordered that attack.

Russian airports have also been targeted. On January 24, 2011, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Domodedovo Airport, killing 37 people and wounding 180. The same airport in August 2004 saw extremist suicide bombers board two airplanes and bring them down, killing a total of 90 people.

* Associated Press