02 February 2010, 23:20
Railway track blown up in St Petersburg, operator wounded
Today, at 4:15 a.m., in the section Bronevaya-Ligovo of the St Petersburg-Vitebsk Department of the Oktiabr Railways an explosion took place and injured the operator of the rail car that ran at the moment on the track.
Inspectors believe that it could be a terror act; however, there are no direct analogies with the blowing up of the "Neva-Express" train on the same Railways in November 2009.
Today's explosion formed a crater about a meter in diameter. According to the Northwest Transport Prosecutor's Office, the power of the bomb was some 200-400 grams of trotyl equivalent. The victim was brought to hospital with a leg bruise. Physicians treat his condition as satisfactory.
"We regard it to be a terror act: this is the main version," said Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the Northwest Transport Investigatory Department and added that a criminal case was opened "on illegal circulation of explosives", as reported by the "Interfax".