A large blast on a crowded metro train has killed at least nine people and injured dozens in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Monday, Russian officials have confirmed.
The explosions happened at around 2.30pm local time (5.30am EST) as the underground metro train pulled away from Sennaya Ploshchad station.
Images from the scene show mangled carriage doors, and eye witnesses described how passengers were forced to climb through broken windows to escape.
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As emergency services above ground responded to the scene and evacuated the injured, law enforcement closed the metro rail lines and a nearby airport.
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The country’s leader, President Vladimir Putin, was in the city to attend a speaking engagement. Within an hour of the incident, he appeared on television to assure the public that he had already spoken with the state intelligence agency and police, whom he said would “do everything to find out the causes of what happened [and] … to support the families of the victims and injured.”
Although it was “too early to say” the cause of the incident, Putin said, it could be “criminal or terrorist.”
While no group has claimed responsibility for the blast, supporters of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) celebrated the attack online.
Russia has been the target of terrorist groups in its recent history. Moscow’s subway system was attacked by suicide bombers linked to Chechen separatists in 2004 and 2010. Most recently, ISIS has threatened violence in its propaganda films against the Russian population for its government’s military involvement in Syria.