St. Petersburg Metro bomb

This item appears on page 18 of the June 2017 issue.

A bomb placed on board a Metro train in St. Petersburg, Russia, was detonated between stops on April 3, killing 14 people and injuring 64 others. The train operator was hailed as a hero for continuing to the next Metro station after the blast, allowing passengers to escape and rescue workers to reach the injured. A second bomb was discovered in another Metro station and defused.

On April 25, a group allied with the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda released a statement claiming it had ordered the attack and warned that more attacks were planned. Russian authorities identified a Russian citizen of Kyrgyzstan origin as the perpetrator of the attack; as of press time, he was still at large. Another Kyrgyz national, accused of masterminding the attack, was arrested on April 17. The arrested man denied the charge but admitted playing a role in the attack, saying he did not know he was participating in an act of terrorism.