Olympics security fears after second Volgograd blast

At least 14 people have been killed by a suicide bomber in the Russian city of Volograd. A man exploded a device on a bus at rush hour.

Witnesses said the bomb blew the roof off the bus, throwing passengers and debris across the street.

“We ran outside. There was smoke and people were lying in the street. The driver was thrown far. She was alive and moaning… Her hands and clothes were bloody,” said Olga, a clerk in a shop near the blast.

For the second day, we are dying. It’s a nightmare. Volgograd resident

The death toll is expected to rise, said Veronika Skvortsova – head of the Russian Ministry of Health stating that many of the 41 injured were in a critical condition.

The bus bomb came less than a day after suicide bomber struck another target in the city: a bomb at Volgograd’s main railway station on Sunday killed 17. In the Sunday attack a terrorist detonated a bomb outside the metal detectors of the station, filling the entrance hall with what was described as an orange fireball.

“For the second day, we are dying. It’s a nightmare,” a woman near the scene of the bus bomb said, her voice trembling. “What are we supposed to do, just walk now?”

Both bombs were coated in identical metal fragments – making the blasts more deadly.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of the Volgograd attacks, but analysts believe that Islamist militants from Dagestan region are responsible.

They suspect that the city of Volgograd was targeted because it is one of the nearest large cities to Sochi, the site of upcoming winter Olympics – a soft target in an area that is the focus of much media attention.

Fear in the city

The double terrorist attack – coming just two months after a suicide bomb in October killed five in the city – has left residents shaken, with many too scared to use public transport.

“It’s scary. Everybody left buses and trams and are walking. People won’t use public transport,” a resident told Russia Today. New year’s eve celebrations have been cancelled in the city. Fears have spread more widely, with a temporary evacuation of Red Square in Moscow after a suspicious bag was found earlier this morning.

In Volgograd, local blood banks have been turning away donors who have rushed to give help to the injured victims of the blast. Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has said that 1m roubles will be given to the victims of the bus blast, with the injured receiving lesser amounts.

Killers

The motives of the two killers are unclear as there are no official statements from any terrorist groups. However, they are believed to have acted together as the bombs used on both occasions are the same.

Russian security forces are looking at genetic material from the bomber on the bus in an attempt to identify him. Russia Today reported that the army was investigating if the killer was Islamist militant Pavel Pechenkin, a member of a Dagestan-based militant gang.

The ethnically diverse Dagestan is an independent republic in Russia, in the southern Caucasus region that has suffered ethnic and religious unrest in the past decade. The largely Muslim state was unsettled by the war in neighbouring Chechnya and Russian attempts to tighten control of the country. Sectarian warfare, guerrilla attacks on the Russians, and Islamist separatists have all destabilised the country.

The suicide bomber who hit Volgograd in October was identified as a woman from Dagestan.

Russian news organisations said that three Islamic militants in Dagestan had been shot by the Russian army this morning.