Fourteen people were killed and 34 injured on Sunday when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, investigators said, revising down an earlier toll. The incident has raised concerns about security in Russia just six weeks before the Sochi Olympic Games.
The unidentified woman set off her charge after being stopped by a police officer at the metal detectors at the entrance to the station while it was packed with people travelling to celebrate the New Year, regional officials said. Footage of the blast captured by a nearby camera showed a huge fireball blow out the front doors and a row of windows from the grey stone three-story building, before huge billows of smoke poured out as people scattered along the street. Russia’s investigative committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said officials had launched an inquiry into a suspected ‘act of terror’.
‘A suicide bomber who was approaching a metal detector saw a law enforcement official and, after growing nervous, set off an explosive device,’ Markin said in televised comments.
Officials said at least 34 people were injured by the blast that had the explosive equivalent of more than 10 kilogrammes (16 pounds) of TNT. It was the deadliest attack in Russia for almost three years.