BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhuanet) -- A blast that tore through an electric bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd on Monday has killed 14 people. It came just a day after a suicide bomb at a railway station in the same city killed at least 17. Officials say the two bombs were probably carried out by suicide bombers from the same organisation.
"According to preliminary information, the explosive device (on the trolley bus) was at least the equivalent of four kilograms of TNT... Because the shrapnel was identical in both explosive devices, this confirms to the investigators that the two terrorist acts were connected. In all likelihood, they could have been prepared in the same place," said Vladimir Matkin, spokesman for Russian Investigative Committee.
Monday’s explosion ripped away much of the bus's exterior and the shattered windows of nearby buildings. It paralysed public transport in the city, forcing many residents to walk long distances to get to work.
President Vladimir Putin ordered tighter security nationwide after the morning rush-hour blast.
In Sunday’s train station suicide bombing, the attacker detonated the explosives among travellers in front of the station’s metal detectors.
The two bombings come as Russia prepares to host Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in less than two months. Volgograd, located about 650 kilometres northeast of Sochi, serves as a key transport hub for southern Russia, with numerous bus routes linking it to provinces in the violence-plagued North Caucasus.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
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