St Petersburg metro explosions kill ten

The head of Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said the blast hit a train between Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations.

The committee said an explosive device was later found and made safe at another station nearby.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the explosion was "terrorist attack".

An anti-terror investigation has been opened, but other possible causes are being investigated.

The man suspected of killing 11 people in a St Petersburg train is in his early 20s and from Central Asia, Russian media report.

At least 45 people were injured in the explosion between two underground stations on Monday afternoon.

Another explosive device was found and made safe at a station nearby.

The Interfax and Tass news agencies said the suspect had been identified, but there are conflicting reports as to whether he was a suicide bomber.

The man suspected of killing 11 people by bombing a St Petersburg train is a native of Kyrgyzstan who obtained Russian citizenship, the Central Asian country's security service says.

Forty-nine people were injured in the explosion between two underground stations on Monday afternoon.

The Kyrgyz security service named the bomber as Akbarzhon Jalilov, who it said was born in Osh in 1995.

There are conflicting reports as to whether he was a suicide bomber.

Kyrgyz state media said the country's security service was "maintaining contact with the Russian secret service for further investigation".

St Petersburg attack: What we know

A bomb in a train in the Russian city of St Petersburg killed 14 people and injured 51 others on Monday. A suspect has been identified as Akbarzhon Jalilov, a naturalised Russian national born in Kyrgyzstan in 1995, according to the Kyrgyz security service.

How did it happen?

The bomb went off at around 14:30 local time (11:30 GMT) after a train left Sennaya Ploshchad station, heading south for Tekhnologichesky Institut on the blue, north-south metro line.
Initial reports spoke of two bombs but it gradually became clear that there was a single blast, possibly in the third carriage of the train.

The names of the victims have yet to be confirmed by the authorities. The wounded were being treated in four hospitals.

Although the explosion happened in between the two stations the driver continued to Tekhnologichesky Institut to enable victims to be helped more easily. Russia's investigative committee said this decision may have helped prevent further losses.


The St Petersburg metro was shut down and three days of mourning declared. Traffic in surrounding streets and in much of central St Petersburg was brought to a standstill for hours, and volunteers offered lifts via social media to people trying to get home.

At the time of the explosion President Vladimir Putin was just outside Russia's second city, meeting Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko at the Konstantin palace in Strelna.

What caused the explosion?

Early indications were that the bomb was an improvised device made out of the explosive TNT and was possibly hidden in a briefcase close to the carriage doors. Pictures from the scene showed mangled doors and bodies on the floor of the platform.

Minutes later another device was found propped up against a wall at another city metro station, Ploshchad Vosstaniya. That was safely defused and reports said it contained 1kg of TNT, more than used in the original blast.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described the blast as a "terrorist act" and Russia's investigative committee said it was opening a criminal inquiry under article 205 of the criminal code which refers specifically to terrorist acts. The committee said that all other possibilities were being investigated too.

Who is the suspect?


Details are still emerging about the identity of the suspect. Kyrgyzstan's security service said the man it named as the suicide bomber, Akbarzhon Jalilov, was born in Osh, the country's second-largest city, and obtained Russian citizenship. But the information has not been confirmed yet by Russian authorities.

No group has said it carried out the attack.

Has Russia been attacked before?

Russia's transport infrastructure has been targeted in several occasions.
◾In 2013, suicide bombers killed 31 people in consecutive attacks in Volgograd, on the central station and a trolleybus
◾In 2011, a bombing at Domodedovo airport in Moscow claimed 35 lives
◾In 2010, 38 people were killed in an attack on the Moscow metro by two female suicide bombers
◾In 2009, Islamist militants from the North Caucasus blew up the Nevsky express train from Moscow to St Petersburg, killing 27 people. Two years earlier another express train on the same line was derailed by a bomb.

The St Petersburg metro explosion was caused by a bomb possibly detonated by a man whose body parts were found on the train, Russian investigators say.

Monday's blast between two stations killed 14 people and injured almost 50.

Kyrgyzstan's security service named the suspect as Akbarzhon Jalilov, who was born in the Kyrgyz city of Osh in 1995 and had obtained Russian citizenship.

The White House says it is "confident" Bashar al-Assad's government was behind an apparent chemical attack that killed at least 58 people in north-west Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that strikes on Khan Sheikhoun by Syrian government or Russian jets had caused many people to choke.

Later, aircraft fired rockets at local clinics treating survivors, medics and activists said.

Syria's army denied the government had used any such weapons.

In a statement, President Donald Trump condemned what he called "these heinous actions" by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

"It is clear that this is how Bashar al-Assad operates," the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said - "with brutal, unabashed barbarism."

The UK, United Nations and France, among others, also condemned the incident, which would, if confirmed, be one of the deadliest chemical attacks in Syria's civil war.
The warplanes are reported to have attacked rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun, about 50km (30 miles) south of the city of Idlib, early on Tuesday, when many people were asleep.
◾Hussein Kayal, a photographer for the pro-opposition Edlib Media Center (EMC), told the Associated Press that he was awoken by the sound of an explosion at about 06:30 (03:30 GMT)
◾When he reached the scene, there was no smell, he said, and he found people lying on the floor, unable to move and with constricted pupils
◾Mohammed Rasoul, the head of a charity ambulance service in Idlib, told the BBC his medics had found people, many of them children, choking in the street
◾The UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), quoted medics who had treated people for fainting, vomiting and foaming at the mouth
◾An AFP news agency journalist saw a young girl, a woman and two elderly people dead at a hospital, all with foam still visible around their mouths
◾The journalist also reported that the same facility was hit by a rocket on Tuesday afternoon, bringing down rubble on top of doctors treating the injured.

The source of the projectile was not clear, but the EMC and the opposition Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC) network said warplanes had targeted several clinics.US blames Assad over 'chemical attack'

The first victims of the St Petersburg metro explosion have been named, as investigators continue to piece together the identity of the attacker.

Monday's blast between two stations killed 14 people and injured almost 50.

Investigators say it may have been a suicide bomb set off by a Kyrgyzstan-born man, Akbarzhon Jalilov.

Reports in Russia say one of the victims, Irina Medyantseva, died as she tried to shield her daughter from the explosion.

Ms Medyantseva, a 50-year-old doll-maker, reportedly died in an ambulance.

Her daughter Yelena, 29, was treated for her injuries in hospital and her condition is said to be stable.

Others victims include Dilbara Alieva, 20, from Azerbaijan, who was taken to hospital but later died from her injuries.

The oldest victim was Yuri Nalimov, 71, and one of the youngest was Ksenia Malyukova, 18, Russia's investigative committee reports (in Russian).

Kazakhstan's foreign ministry said one of its nationals, Maksim Aryshev, a 20-year-old student, had died. He was wrongly named as the bomber on social media on Monday.
Kyrgyzstan's security service named the suspect as Akbarzhon Jalilov, who was born in the Kyrgyz city of Osh in 1995 and had obtained Russian citizenship.

His name was later confirmed by Russian investigators, who said he also planted a second bomb that did not explode.

No group has said it was behind the bombing.

Russian claims that a release of chemicals that killed and injured dozens of civilians in northern Syria came from rebel weapons on the ground have been rejected.

Britain's foreign secretary, a rebel commander and a weapons expert all said the evidence pointed to an attack by Syrian government forces.

Damascus denies its forces launched a chemical weapons attack.

The issue is overshadowing a conference on Syria in Brussels.

Seventy donor nations are discussing aid efforts in the war-ravaged country.

Six people have been detained in St Petersburg suspected of recruiting for so-called Islamic State (IS) and aiding terrorist activity, investigators say.

The suspects are from Central Asian countries and have been active since November, Russian officials add.

There is no evidence they are connected with Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Kyrgyzstan-born man suspected of bombing St Petersburg's metro.

Monday's attack killed 14 people and injured almost 50.

Those detained had been recruiting other Central Asian immigrants in St Petersburg "to carry out terrorist crimes" and to join "illegal armed groups", including IS, Russia's state investigative committee said in a statement.

Extremist Islamist literature was found during a search of their living quarters, it added. No other details have been given.

An explosive device has been made safe in a flat in St Petersburg by Russian police, three days after a suspected bomber on the city's metro killed 13 people.

A city official said several suspects were held when police raided the flat early on Thursday, Ria Novosti said.

Neighbours were moved away and witnesses said three men were led out in handcuffs, the news agency added.