Ambulances line up a site of a trolleybus explosion, background, in Volgograd, Russia on Monday. A bomb blast tore through the trolleybus in the city Volgograd on Monday morning, killing at least fourteen people a day after a suicide bombing that killed at 17 at the city’s main railway station - AP Moscow: At least 14 people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a packed trolleybus in Volgograd, raising new concerns about security at the Sochi Olympics a day after a deadly attack on the southern Russian city's train station.
President Vladimir Putin, under pressure to show that Russia can assure the security of tens of thousands of guests when the Winter Games open on February 7, ordered stepped up security across the country.
The twin suicide attacks on Volgograd, which until this year had no record of recent unrest, have stunned Russia and troubled the authorities as people prepare for mass New Year celebrations. At least 17 people died in Sunday's attack blamed on a suspected female suicide bomber.
The force of the blast destroyed the number 15A trolleybus, which was packed with early morning commuters and was turned into a tangle of wreckage with only its roof and front remaining.
Health ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai told Russian state television that 14 people were killed in the trolleybus bombing and 28 wounded.
Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons, the Investigative Committee said. "The explosives were detonated by a male suicide bomber, fragments of whose body have been found and taken for genetic analysis to establish his identity," said spokesman Vladimir Markin.
He said that some four kilogrammes (nine pounds) of TNT equivalent had been used in the blast and noted the explosives were identical to those used in Sunday's train station bombing. "This confirms the theory that the two attacks are linked. It is possible that they were prepared in the same place," he added.
Concerns over Olympic security
The new attack will further heighten fears about security at the Winter Olympic Games in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, which lies 690 kilometres (425 miles) southwest of Volgograd.
Putin ordered security stepped up across all of Russia after the bombings, with a special regime to be imposed in Volgograd, the national anti-terror committee announced.
Russia is already preparing to impose a "limited access" security cordon around Sochi from January 7 which will check all traffic and ban all non-resident cars from a wide area around the city.
State television said that after the latest blast in Volgograd commuters were abandoning buses and trolleybuses and going to work on foot in fear of a new attack. Speculation swirled on social networking sites that there had been more blasts but the local authorities insisted that was not the case, the RIA Novosti news agency said.
The search for the perpetrators of the blast is expected to focus on Russia's largely Muslim North Caucasus region where Islamist militants have for years been fighting the Russian security forces.
Doku Umarov, the leader of militants seeking to impose an Islamist state throughout Russia's North Caucasus, has ordered rebels to target civilians outside the region and disrupt the Games.
Next: Hitting the Russian heartland
Ambulances line up a site of a trolleybus explosion, background, in Volgograd, Russia, on Monday. -AP
Victims' bodies lie outside a wreckage of a trolleybus in Volgograd, Russia. The blast caused by a suicide bomber has killed 14 people. -APExperts and police officers examine a site of a trolleybus explosion, in Volgograd, Russia, on Monday. Investigating officials have found that the bomb was detonated by a male suicide bomber whose body fragments has been recognised. -APAn ambulance leaves the site of a trolleybus explosion in Volgograd, Russia. The explosions put the city on edge and highlighted the terrorist threat that Russia is facing as it prepares to host the Winter Games in February. -APExperts, firefighters and police officers examine a site of a trolleybus explosion in Volgograd, Russia. -APPolice officers with a sniffing dog examine territory around the site of a trolleybus explosion in Volgograd. The force of the blast left almost no trace of the trolleybus, which was packed with early morning commuters, and also blew out windows of nearby houses. -APFlowers are placed at the main entrance of Volgograd main railway station. Volgograd blasts will be a particular concern to the authorities as the bomber struck a city of more than one million people in the Russian heartland. -APPolice officers guard the Volgograd main railway station as passengers from arriving trains leave, in Volgograd. -APA Volgograd resident walks crying in Volgograd, near the main railways station. -APBodies of the victims lie outside a wreckage of a trolleybus in Volgograd. -APA demolition expert walks along a wreckage of a trolleybus in Volgograd. Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons. -APAn investigator takes photos in a wreckage. After the latest blast in Volgograd commuters were abandoning buses and trolleybuses and going to work on foot in fear of a new attack. -AP
No comments:
Post a Comment