Vladimir Putin Visits St. Petersburg Attack Scene That Killed 11
MEP: It was 2:40 p.m. on Monday, a lull before the evening rush hour in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, where the subway normally carries two million people a day. The train had just entered a tunnel between stations, on its way out of a sprawling downtown hub, when the bomb exploded.
At least 11 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in the explosion between St. Petersburg’s Sennaya Ploshad and Technological Institute stations. The Kremlin has stated that the incident has “all the hallmarks of an attack.”
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.
Amateur video broadcast by Russian TV showed people lying on the platform of the Technological Institute station, and others bleeding and weeping just after the train pulled in with a huge hole ripped in the side of one of the carriages.
President Vladimir Putin, who had been in St. Petersburg earlier in the day, visited the scene and laid roses at a makeshift memorial with candles outside the bombed metro station.
He offered his condolences to the victims and said he has been in contact with the security services about the investigation, according to state media.
“The reasons for the explosion are unknown, so it’s too early to talk about it. The investigation will show what happened,” Putin said, at the beginning of a meeting with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko. “Naturally, we always consider all options — both domestic and criminal, primarily incidents of a terrorist nature.”
Meanwhile, the blast was widely condemned by world leaders including Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanese Hezbullah and the U.S.
President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who was in Australia, strongly condemned the deadly explosions in the subway of St. Petersburg.
Ashraf Ghani has said that the Afghan people than anyone else understands the pain of victims of terrorism, a statement by his office said.
Iran has offered its condolences to the families of the victims of the deadly blast stressing that killing innocent people is not a way to reach political goals.
“Causing insecurity and killing innocent people is the most humiliating path to reaching political goals,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi on Monday.
Separately, the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah also sentenced the terrorist explosion in Saint Petersburg. In a Monday statement, Hezbollah said the attack was further reason for world countries to unite in their efforts to confront the terrorists and their financial and ideological sources.
The White House said President Donald Trump had spoken to Mr Putin by phone and offered “full support” in bringing those responsible to justice.
“Both President Trump and President Putin agreed that terrorism must be decisively and quickly defeated,” a statement said.
The subway system was shut down for about five hours, and the city declared surface transportation free. Still, as offices let out, the streets clogged with traffic, and sidewalks were jammed with people making the long trek home from work on foot.
