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MOSCOW/BRUSSELS. — More than a dozen people were killed yesterday when a blast ripped through a railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd in what authorities say was an attack carried out by a suicide female bomber.
If confirmed, the presumed attack will prove to have been the second in the city in the space of just a little over two months and will provoke deep anxiety as Russia readies to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi early next year.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said 15 people were killed and more than 30 people injured in the blast near the metal detectors at the front entrance to Volgograd-1 train station.
The remains of a suspected suicide bomber were discovered at the scene of the blast and will undergo DNA testing, Markin said.
“A suicide bomber approaching a metal detector saw a policeman near it and, after growing nervous, set off an explosive device,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Almost half of the victims are in a critical condition and doctors are fighting to save their lives, Volgograd region governor Sergei Bozhenov said.
Among the injured is a nine-year-old girl whose mother shielded her with her own body at the time of the blast, city mayor Irina Guseva told reporters. The woman died at the scene and the girl is in a critical state.
Some victims are to be evacuated by the Emergency Situations Ministry by plane to Moscow, approximately a 90-minute flight away, for medical help.
The Emergency Situations Ministry sent a plane to Volgograd carrying a team of 22 doctors and medical equipment to help the injured, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that the explosion was caused by an unidentified device and that it was probably the work of a female suicide bomber. It did not speculate on who might be responsible.
Surveillance footage of the building’s exterior posted online showed a massive fireball erupting within the train station’s central hall, followed by clouds of smoke streaming out the windows.
One police officer was killed and six more were wounded as they worked nearby the entrance’s metal detectors, the Interior Ministry said.
Long-distance trains at the main part of the station continued to run on schedule despite the explosion, a Russian Railways representative told RIA Novosti.
President Vladimir Putin yesterday expressed regret to families of the blast victims. He ordered ministers and heads of law enforcement agencies to find those who were behind the explosion.
A mourning period will be observed over the first three days of next year to recognise the victims of the explosion.
Meanwhile, Nato’s secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned the suicide attack at Russia’s Volgograd railway station.
“I strongly condemn the terrorist attack,” Rasmussen said in a statement. “There can be no justification for such barbarous attacks.”
“Nato and Russia stand together in the fight against terrorism, including by working together on technology to prevent attacks on public transport systems,” he added.
“We will continue to cooperate to improve the safety of our citizens, and the security of our countries,” Rasmussen concluded.
The attack raises concerns about security six weeks before the Sochi Winter Olympics. — RT-AFP.
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