Female suicide bomber kills 16 at Russia train station
A female suicide bomber killed 16 people Sunday in a strike
on the main train station of the southern Russian city of Volgograd that
heightened security fears just six weeks before the Sochi Olympic Games.
Investigators said the unidentified woman set off her charge
after being stopped by a police officer at the metal detectors of the central
entrance to the station when it was packed with people travelling to celebrate
the New Year.
Footage captured by a nearby camera showed a huge orange
fireball blow out the heavy front doors and windows from the grey stone
three-storey building. Thick billows of smoke then poured out as people
scattered along the rain-soaked street.
Russia's Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin
said officials had launched an inquiry into a suspected "act of
terror" -- the deadliest attack in Russia for almost three years.
"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.
Doctors and police said 16 people were killed and nearly 45
injured by the explosive equivalent of more than 10 kilogrammes (16 pounds) of
TNT.
Russia's interior ministry said it was immediately stepping
up security at all the nation's main train stations and airports.
"These measures involve a greater police presence and
more detailed passenger checks," an interior ministry spokesman told the
Interfax news agency.
The Volgograd government also introduced a heightened terror
alert level in the region for the coming 15 days.
The lifenews.ru website published a picture of what it said
was the head of the young female bomber lying amid a pile of debris with her
long brown hair spread across the floor.
The website and state-run RIA Novosti identified the bomber
as a Dagestani woman named Oksana Aslanova who had been married to two
different Islamists killed in battles with federal forces.
Investigators added that she may have been assisted in her
attack by a man they identified only by the last name of Pavlov.
Female suicide bombers are often referred to in Russia as
"black widows" -- women who seek to avenge the deaths of their family
members in the fighting by targeting Russian civilians.
Olympic security fears
The city known as Stalingrad in the Soviet era was already
attacked on October 21 by a female suicide bomber with links to Islamists.
That strike killed six people aboard a crowded bus and
prompted the authorities to refocus their attention on the security measures
being taken ahead of the February 7-23 Winter Games in Sochi.
The Black Sea city lies 690 kilometres (425 miles) southwest
of Volgograd and in proximity to the violence in North Caucasus regions such as
Dagestan and Chechnya.
Militants are seeking to impose an Islamist state throughout
Russia's North Caucasus. Their leader Doku Umarov has ordered rebels to target
civilians outside the region and disrupt the Games.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin -- who has staked
his personal reputation on Sochi's success -- was "immediately"
informed of Sunday's incident and being regularly updated about the probe.
Russian authorities have repeatedly vowed to take the
highest security precautions in Sochi. There have been few indications to date
of foreign sports fans cancelling their attendance out of safety fears.
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy in a statement
condemned "in the strongest terms the heinous attack in Volgograd",
while NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO and Russia "stand together
in the fight against terrorism".
French President Francois Hollande meanwhile expressed his
country's solidarity with the Russian people after the "terrible
attack".
Militant strikes have become part of daily life in the
mainly Muslim North Caucasus. But the Volgograd blast will be a particular
concern to the authorities as the bomber struck a city of more than one million
people in the Russian heartland.
Sunday's blast was the deadliest in Russia since a suicide
bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport killed 37 people in January 2011.
Female suicide bombers have repeatedly struck Russian
targets during Putin's 14-year rule.
Umarov dispatched two women to set off blasts at a pair of
Moscow metro stations in March 2010 that killed more than 35 people.
So-called black widows were also responsible for killing
more than 90 people when they took down two passenger jets that took off from a
Moscow airport within minutes of each other in 2004.
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