The Latest: UN Security Council condemns attack in Russia

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. In the past two decades, Russian trains and planes have been frequent targets of terrorism, usually blamed on Islamic militants.

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11:55 p.m.

The Interfax news agency says Russian police think a man they suspect of blowing himself up to attack a St. Petersburg subway train had links to radical Islamists.

The agency cited an unidentified law enforcement official saying that investigators believe the suspect carried an explosive device onto the train in a rucksack.

Interfax says evidence found at the detonation site point to a suicide attack.

The agency reports that the 23-year old man investigators suspect in the blast came from formerly Soviet Central Asia and was linked to radical Islamic groups.

Interfax says police now think the same man, not a second suspect, planted a bomb at a subway station that was found and defused before it went off.

Monday’s explosion in a subway car killed 11 and wounded 45 others as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in St. Petersburg, his home town.

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11:35 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has brought flowers to honour the victims of a subway train explosion in St. Petersburg.

Looking sombre, Putin laid a large bunch of red roses outside the subway station where the mangled train arrived moments after an explosive device went off in one of its cars on Monday afternoon.

Authorities say the blast killed 11 people and wounded more than 40 others

Russian state television showed Putin placing the flowers at an improvised memorial near the Technological Institute station entrance. The Russian leader walked away to his car without speaking to the media.

Earlier in the day, Putin said law enforcement agencies and intelligence services were working to “give a full picture of what happened” and promised help for blast victims and their families.

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11:15 p.m.

The Interfax news agency says Russian police suspect that the explosion on a St. Petersburg subway train was caused by a suicide bomber.

The agency quoted an unidentified law enforcement official saying that authorities had identified the suspected attacker as a 23-year old national of an ex-Soviet Central Asian nation. It didn’t name the suspect or the country.

Monday’s bombing killed 11 people and wounded 45 others as Russian President Vladimir Putin was in St. Petersburg, his home town.

Russian news reports had previously said that police were seeking a man caught on security cameras who was suspected of leaving a bomb behind him on a subway train.

Russian media published photos of the suspect wearing what appeared to be a skullcap characteristic of Russia’s Muslim regions.

Interfax later quoted a law enforcement official saying that the man in the video had gone to police to profess his innocence.

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10:25 p.m.

Russia’s top anti-terror agency says the death toll in subway bombing in St. Petersburg has reached 11.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee says another 45 people wounded in Monday’s explosion are being treated at hospitals.

Officials previously had said that 10 people were killed and about 40 were wounded when an explosive device rigged with shrapnel went off on a subway train in the centre of St. Petersburg.

City authorities shut the entire subway system after the blast. Law enforcement agents found an unexploded bomb at another subway station and defused it.

The Interfax news agency reports that police are searching for two suspects suspected of involvement.

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10:10 p.m.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the U.S. is condemning the “reprehensible” attack on the St. Petersburg subway that killed 10 people and injured about 40.

Spicer said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured and with the Russian people,” after a bomb blast tore through a subway train in Russia’s second-largest city Monday.

Spicer says the U.S. is prepared to offer assistance to Russia.

He said, “Attacks like these on ordinary citizens just going about their lives remind us that the world must work as one to prevent violence in all forms.”

Trump earlier denounced the attack as “absolutely a terrible thing.”

There has been np immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

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10:00 p.m.

The bombing of a subway train in Russia has drawn wide condemnation from Moscow’s friends and foes. At least 10 people died in the attack in St. Petersburg.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said killing innocent people “is the most humiliating act for achieving political goals.”

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, which is backing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces along with Russia, says the incident was the type of “terrorism” Russia was fighting in Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said those responsible for the bombing must be held accountable.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini sent a condolence message to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, saying she and her colleagues were following the news from St. Petersburg “with a lot of apprehension.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says nation would “stand by all those who suffer.”

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9:05 p.m.

President Donald Trump calls the deadly bomb blast on a Russian subway train “absolutely a terrible thing.”

Trump spoke Monday before a working lunch with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi (AHB’-del fat-AH’ el-SEE’-see). Trump says “it’s happening all over the world.”

The president made no further comment on the Monday blast that killed 10 people and injured about 40. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Russian trains and planes have been targeted repeatedly by Islamic militants.

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7:15 p.m.

The Interfax news agency says Russian law enforcement agencies are searching for two suspects in the St. Petersburg subway bombing.

The news agency is quoting law enforcement sources as saying that police are looking for a man who is believed to have planted a device that exploded in a subway car on Monday, killing 10 and wounding about 40 others.

Interfax says authorities are also looking for another person suspected of leaving a second bomb at a subway station. That device was discovered and defused by authorities before it went off.

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7:05 p.m.

France’s Interior Ministry is reinforcing security measures on public transport in the Paris region after a deadly bomb blast hit a Russian subway train.

French Interior Minister Mathias Fekl said in a statement Monday the decision was a “measure of precaution” after the explosion in St. Petersburg.

The statement provided no further information about the reinforced security, and Fekl’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Armed soldiers patrol subways, airports, museums and other sites around France as part of heightened security measures imposed after deadly Islamic extremist attacks in 2015.

The French Embassy in Russia urged French citizens anywhere in the country to exercise “the most extreme vigilance” and avoid public transport.

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6:50 p.m.

Russian law enforcement agencies have confirmed that the explosive device was found and defused at Vosstaniya Square station was rigged with shrapnel. Earlier in the day, another bomb exploded in the subway system, killing 10 people.

The Interfax news agency said it contained up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives.

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6:10 p.m.

Russia’s health minister says that 10 people died in the subway explosion in St. Petersburg. The minister, Veronika Skvortsova, said on live television that seven people were killed on the spot, another died in an ambulance heading for a hospital and two others died at the hospital.

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5:55 p.m.

Russian news reports say that a security camera has caught a person who could be responsible for a blast on St. Petersburg subway.

The Interfax news agency is citing an unidentified source who says the suspect in Monday’s blast might have left the explosive device in a bag. It didn’t explain why the man was believed to be the culprit.

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5:25 p.m.

A spokesman for Russia’s top anti-terror agency says law enforcement agents have found and defused another explosive device on St. Petersburg’s subway.

Andrei Przhezdomsky (pr-ZHEZ-domsky) said the improvised explosive was found Monday on Ploshchad Vosstaniya station. He made the statement about two hours after a blast on a subway train in St. Petersburg killed at least 10 and wounded dozens of others.

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5:20 p.m.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee says it has found and deactivated a bomb at another St. Petersburg subway station.

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5:10 p.m.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel says he learned of the deadly explosion in St. Petersburg “with deep sorrow.”

Although the cause of the explosion has not been confirmed, Gabriel says it appeared to be “a perfidious attack against innocent people.”

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4:35 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says investigators were looking into whether the St. Petersburg subway explosion was a terror attack or if there might have been some other cause.

He says: “Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services are doing their best to establish the cause and give a full picture of what happened.”

Putin happened to in St. Petersburg for a meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

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4:15 p.m.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee has announced that security will be tightened at all critical transport facilities following St. Petersburg blast.

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3:55 p.m.

Andrei Kibitov, spokesman for the St. Petersburg governor, has told Russian television 10 people have been killed and 50 injured in the subway explosion.

In Moscow, Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov told the Interfax news agency that Moscow authorities are tightening security on the subway in the Russian capital.

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3:45 p.m.

Russian news agencies Tass and Interfax report 10 dead in blast on train in St. Petersburg subway.

Video footage posted on social media website shows a train with mangled doors standing at the platform. Frantic commuters reach out into the doors and windows, trying to see if anyone is there and shouting “Call an ambulance!”

Russian Senator Viktor Ozerov tells Interfax that the explosion looks like a terrorist attack.

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3:30 p.m.

The subway in the Russian city of St. Petersburg is reporting that several people have been injured in an explosion on a subway train.

The subway’s administration says several stations in the northern Russian city have been closed and that an evacuation is underway Monday afternoon.

Social media users posted photographs from one subway station in the city centre, showing people lying on the floor and a train with a mangled door nearby.

Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the explosion. Putin is visiting the city Monday and is expected to hold talks with the Belarusian president later in the day.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

The Latest: UN Security Council condemns attack in Russia

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