Russian police issue sketch of tragic train blast suspect
Moscow | Sunday, Nov 29 2009 IST
 

Russian Interior Ministry has issued a sketch of one of the main suspects in a terrorist attack on a Moscow-St Petersburg train that killed at least 26 people Friday.

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev described the suspected terrorist "over 40, stocky and ginger-haired." ''There is information to suggest that several people were involved,'' Nurgaliyev told reporters.

He said a person who supplied information on the suspects was being sought.

Russia's Federal Security chief Alexander Bortnikov earlier said an explosive device equivalent to 7 kg of TNT caused Friday evening's deadly derailment. Traces of explosives had been found at the scene and prosecutors have opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism, he said.

The announcement came after Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin said that a second, weaker bomb had exploded yesterday at 2:00 p.m. at the site of the attack, but it did not caused any injuries.

Russian Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said the death toll from the attack remained unchanged. She said 18 people are still missing almost 24 hours after the train derailed near the town of Bologoye in the Tver Region, approximately halfway between the capital and St Petersburg.

Ninety-six people were injured.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the Interior Ministry to ''keep the situation under control,'' adding that the ''situation is tense as it is.'' Rescue workers rounded up yesterday work at the site of a deadly attack.

''We are concluding our search,'' Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

A similar derailment, also caused by a terrorist blast, occurred on the same route in August 2007, injuring 60 people. While two residents of the Muslim-domintated North Caucasus region of Ingushetia were arrested in connection with the attack, prosecutors said it was planned by former soldier Pavel Kosolapov, a one-time associate of late Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

Meanwhile, two people were killed yesterday when a bus collided with a runaway Kamaz truck near Moscow, traffic police said.

The bus was taking passengers back from a daytrip to Kaluga, some 190 kms southwest of Moscow, when it ploughed into the truck.

The bus driver and an 11-year old girl died. Six other people were injured and two of them are in a critical condition.

Some 30,000 people lose their lives in traffic accidents every year in Russia.

Medvedev recently blamed the carnage on the poor state of the country's roads, as well as a ''lack of discipline, and the criminal negligence of drivers.''

-- (UNI) -- 29DF1.xml

 

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