Explosion on Russian subway kills 11
Posted April 3, 2017 6:06 am.
Last Updated April 3, 2017 4:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – The Interfax news agency says Russian police suspect the explosion on a St. Petersburg subway train was caused by a suicide bomber with links to radical Islamists.
Monday’s explosion in a subway car killed 11 and wounded 45 others.
The agency cited an unidentified law enforcement official saying that investigators believe the suspect carried an explosive device onto the train in a rucksack.
Interfax says evidence found at the detonation site point to a suicide attack.
The agency reports that the 23-year old man investigators suspect in the blast came from formerly Soviet Central Asia and was linked to radical Islamic groups.
Interfax says police now think the same man, not a second suspect, planted a bomb at a subway station that was found and defused before it went off.
Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov told Interfax that the explosion looks like a terrorist attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Photos shared by Russian news agencies show people lying on the floor of a station alongside a train with a mangled door.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has brought flowers to honor the victims.
Looking somber, Putin laid a large bunch of red roses outside the subway station where the mangled train arrived moments after an explosive device went off in one of its cars.
Moscow authorities are tightening security on the subway in the Russian capital.
