An explosion rocks St Petersburg’s Tekhnologicheskiy Institut station at 2.30 pm local time. Smoke is reported at the Sennaya Ploshchad station. A third unexploded device was found at Ploshchad Vosstaniya station. For President Putin, it is too early to say if it is terrorism.
St Petersburg (AsiaNews/The Moscow Times) – At least ten people have died and 50 were wounded in an explosion on the St Petersburg Metro.
Russian authorities confirmed that the blast took place at the city's Tekhnologicheskiy Institut metro station at approximately 2:30 pm local time.
Initial reports indicated that a second device had exploded on a metro car at the Sennaya Ploshchad station. Police later clarified that only smoke had been seen in the area.
Government sources have reported that a third unexploded device was found at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in St Petersburg to meet Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, said that it was too early to call the incident a terrorist attack but that it would be among the security services' first lines of enquiry.
The president also confirmed that he was in close touch with the head of Russia's Federal Security Service.
In view of the situation, the St Petersburg metro has been closed, whilst the Moscow metro is still operating with extra security measures in place, officials announced on Twitter.