Russian prosecutors launch terrorism probe after railway blast UPDATE

Russian prosecutors launch terrorism probe after railway blast UPDATE

	Published : Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:40 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updates with further details on blast; witness, official quotes)

SAINT PETERSBURG (Thomson Financial) - Russian investigators have launched a terrorism probe after a bomb blast derailed an express passenger train travelling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, injuring 60 people.

The blast on the Monday evening 'Nevsky Express' train derailed all 12 of its carriages, causing several to topple on to their side and luggage and other debris to spill on to the railway embankment, television footage showed.

State-owned Russian Railways said in a statement that an improvised explosive device appeared to be the cause. This was confirmed by an official for the prosecutor's office for northwest Russia, Sergei Bednichenko.

'A criminal case has been opened for ... terrorism,' said Bednichenko, speaking on television from the scene.

The train derailed near Malaya Vishera in Novgorod province, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south-east of the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg.

One passenger arriving in Saint Petersburg after the incident described an enormous crashing sound and smoke rising from the scene.

'We heard a terrible crash. The windows shattered and the train stopped,' said Viktoria Kobos. 'We were in the last wagon so we were not affected. But in the others, we saw blood and smoke. The restaurant car was literally crushed.'

The derailment came after a lull in insurgent attacks in Russia's main population centres since a spate of suicide bombings in Moscow in 2003 and 2004 that were blamed on Chechen rebels.

Mobile phone footage aired by the NTV channel showed what appeared to be a gap in the rail line, a little under a metre (three feet) long, caused by the blast.

A local police official told RIA Novosti that 'a bomb equivalent to two kilogrammes of TNT exploded on the rails'.

'Sixty people needed medical aid and 20 were taken to hospitals in the Novgorod region. Two are in critical condition,' Russian Railways said.

In addition to those taken to hospital in Novgorod, eight more people were taken to hospital in Saint Petersburg, including an Italian national with a broken arm and a 12-year-old girl suffering from a concussion.

Insurgent attacks in Russia by separatist rebels have faded from the public eye since the September 2004 Beslan hostage massacre left more than 300 people including many children dead.

But away from the glare of the media there has been an upsurge in low-level insurgent violence in the mainly Muslim provinces of Russia's North Caucasus in recent months. The political temperature is also rising ahead of a presidential election next March.

The Moscow-Saint Petersburg train is popular with foreign tourists who head to see Saint Peterburg's cultural riches.

It was not immediately clear if there were other foreigners on board apart from the Italian.

After Monday's derailment Russian Railways said that a total of 231 tickets had been sold for the train, while it carried 20 staff.

'The train's team acted courageously in this critical situation, and thanks to their quick, precise and well-coordinated actions the accident's consequences for the passengers were reduced to a minimum,' the company's statement said.

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