A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of a train station in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd on Sunday, killing over a dozen people and injuring scores more in the second deadly bombing in the city in just over two months.
Between 13 and 18 people were killed and up to 50 more were wounded, according to various estimates by Russian officials, by the blast near the metal detectors at the Volgograd-1 train station’s front entrance at 12:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. GMT).
Some victims of the explosion are being evacuated by Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry by plane to Moscow, approximately a 90-minute flight away, for medical help.
Investigators said they have opened a criminal case into the attack for terrorism and weapons trafficking.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that the explosion was caused by an unidentified device and that it was probably the work of a female suicide bomber, though it did not speculate on who might be responsible in the statement.
Surveillance footage of the building’s exterior posted online showed a massive fireball erupting within the train station’s central hall, followed by clouds of smoke streaming out the windows. One police officer was killed and three more were wounded as they worked nearby the entrance’s metal detectors.
Long-distance trains at the main part of the station are still running on schedule despite the explosion, a Russian Railways representative told RIA Novosti.
President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to take all necessary measures to help the victims of the blast.
The city announced a mourning period between January 1 and 3 to recognize the victims of the explosion, the second attack in the region over the last several days after a car bomb killed three people in the nearby city of Pyatigorsk on Friday.
Volgograd was also the location of a terrorist attack that killed 6 people and injured 37 more in October, when a female suicide bomber from Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan detonated a bus.
A city of about 1 million people, Volgograd lies about 430 miles (690 km) from Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games – a major prestige project for Putin and Russia – opening on February 7.
In this photo made by a public camera and made available by the Associated Press Television News smoke pours out after an explosion at Volgograd railway station, in Volograd Russia on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Via RIANOVOSTI
