A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people at a Russian train station on Sunday in the country’s worst terrorist attack for nearly four years, prompting Vladimir Putin to order a tightening of security at transport hubs ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics in February.
At least 40 others were injured when the attacker detonated an explosive device at the entrance to the main railway station in the southern city of Volgograd at 12:45pm local time.
Confusion swirled about the identity of the attacker on Sunday night, after security services told state news agency Interfax that the bomber “was a man who carried explosives into the station in a rucksack” at 12.15pm local time, and who had since been identified. However Russia’s top investigative body had earlier said that the attacker was a woman who detonated a device when a policeman challenged her at a metal detector at the station’s entrance.
The explosion of the device, said to be equivalent to 10 kilogrammes of TNT, blasted the building’s heavy metal gates off their hinges and caused carnage in the queue of passengers waiting to enter the building.
“According to preliminary information the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber who on approaching the line of metal detectors saw police officers around her, lost her nerve and detonated an explosive device including incendiary elements,” Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement on Sunday
At least 40 others were injured when the attacker detonated an explosive device at the entrance to the main railway station in the southern city of Volgograd at 12:45pm local time.
Confusion swirled about the identity of the attacker on Sunday night, after security services told state news agency Interfax that the bomber “was a man who carried explosives into the station in a rucksack” at 12.15pm local time, and who had since been identified. However Russia’s top investigative body had earlier said that the attacker was a woman who detonated a device when a policeman challenged her at a metal detector at the station’s entrance.
The explosion of the device, said to be equivalent to 10 kilogrammes of TNT, blasted the building’s heavy metal gates off their hinges and caused carnage in the queue of passengers waiting to enter the building.
“According to preliminary information the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber who on approaching the line of metal detectors saw police officers around her, lost her nerve and detonated an explosive device including incendiary elements,” Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement on Sunday