10 killed, dozens injured as blast hits metro in St. Petersburg, Russia

Europe, News April 3, 2017 , by IRIA No Comments

10 killed and dozens injured as explosion tore through a metro station in St. Petersburg

At least 10 people were killed and 20 injured in explosions in two train carriages at metro stations in St. Petersburg on Monday, Russian authorities said.

The explosion took place on a train that was travelling between Sennaya Ploshchad and Sadovaya metro stations at about 3pm on Monday, according to multiple reports by Russian state media.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has termed the explosion on a St. Petersburg metro train as a terrorist attack, TASS reported.

“The blast happened between two stations, but the driver made a right decision not to stop the train and took it to the next station so that passengers could evacuate and the injured could be helped,” said spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which is now in charge of the investigation.

Evacuation of people from St. Petersburg’s metro after an explosion is now over, Andrei Przhezdomsky, a spokesman for the National Anti-terrorist Committee (NAC), told the Rossiya-24 television channel.

“So far, we say it was an unidentified explosive device as investigators and the Federal Security Service’s bomb specialists are to establish the exact cause of this explosion… Evacuation is over, medical assistance is offered to those hurt,” he said.

Seven metro stations in the city have been closed following the blast: “Park Pobedy, Elektrosila, Moskovskiye Vorota, Frunzenskaya, Tekhnologichesky Institut, Sennaya Ploshchad and Gostiny Dvor metro stations have been closed,” the metro’s press service reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “The causes of this event have not been determined yet, so it’s too early to talk about [possible causes]. The investigation will show. Certainly, we will consider all possibilities: common, criminal, but first of all of a terrorist nature.”