A blast that tore through an electric bus in the Russian city of Volgograd during yesterday’s morning rush hour, killing 14, was probably carried out by suicide bombers from the same organisation behind a railway explosion a day earlier, officials said.
Together more than 30 people were killed in the explosions, putting the city of one million on edge and highlighting the terrorist threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin’s pet project.
While terrorists might find it hard to get to the tightly guarded Olympic facilities, the bombings have shown they can hit civilian targets elsewhere in Russia with shocking ease.
Volgograd, about 400 miles north-east of Sochi, serves as a key transport hub for southern Russia, with numerous bus routes linking it to volatile provinces in Russia’s North Caucasus, where insurgents have been seeking an Islamic state.
The city, previously called Stalingrad, also serves as an important symbol of Russian pride because of a historic World War II battle in which the Soviets turned the tide against the Nazis.
Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s main investigative agency, said yesterday’s explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday’s bombing at the city’s main railway station.
“That confirms the investigators’ version that the two terror attacks were linked,” Mr Markin said in a statement. “They could have been prepared in one place.”
Mr Markin said that a suicide attacker was responsible for the bus explosion, reversing an earlier official statement saying that the blast was caused by a bomb that had been left in the vehicle’s passenger area.
At least 14 people were killed and nearly 30 were wounded, according to public health officials.
No one has claimed responsibility for either bombing, but they came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov threatened new attacks against civilian targets in Russia. The explosion ripped away much of the bus’s exterior and shattered windows in nearby buildings.
Russian authorities have been slow to introduce stringent security checks on bus routes, making them the transport of choice for terrorists in the region.
A few months ago authorities introduced a requirement for intercity bus passengers to produce ID when buying tickets, like rail or air passengers, but procedures have remained lax.
Even the tight railway security is sometimes not enough.
In Sunday’s suicide bombing the attacker detonated in the crowd in front of the station’s metal detectors.
The successive attacks in Volgograd signalled that militants may be using the transportation hub as a renewed way of showing their reach outside their restive region.
A suicide bus bombing in Volgograd in October killed six people.
On Friday, three people were killed when an explosives-rigged car blew up in the city of Pyatigorsk, the centre of a federal administrative district created to oversee Kremlin efforts to stabilise the North Caucasus region.
In Sunday’s rail station blast, the bomber detonated explosives just beyond the station’s main entrance when a police sergeant became suspicious and rushed forward to check an ID, officials said.
The officer was killed by the blast, and several other policemen were among some 40 people wounded.
Following Sunday’s explosion, the interior ministry ordered police to beef up patrols at railway stations and other transport facilities across Russia.
Mr Putin yesterday summoned the chief of the main KGB successor agency and the interior minister to discuss the situation, and sent the former to Volgograd to oversee the probe.
British Olympic chiefs are monitoring the security situation in Russia. The British Olympic Association described the terror attacks as “a painful reminder of the threats that exist in our world today”.
It passed on its “deepest condolences” to the people of Volgograd while also stating its belief that the 2014 Sochi Olympics will be “as safe as possible”.
Prime Minister David Cameron has offered British support to help bring to justice the perpetrators of “dis- gusting” suicide bomb attacks.
The prime minister wrote to President Putin to extend his condolences for the loss of life and say the UK would do what it could to prevent further attacks.