Moscow – Prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation Tuesday into Monday’s bomb explosion that derailed an express train, overturning carriages and injuring 60 people.
An improvised bomb was placed under the rails just before a bridge in a bid to make the prestigious Nevsky Express crash into a narrow ravine, which could have caused much higher casualties, authorities said. The train between Moscow and St. Petersburg, frequently used by businesspeople, tourists, politicians and government officials, was traveling at about 120 mph when it derailed.
Television footage showed a 6-foot-wide crater in the gravel rail bed, a broken rail and several cars lying on their sides. The force of the bomb was the equivalent of about 6 pounds of TNT, investigators said.
Of the injured, 25 were hospitalized, five with grave injuries, authorities said. All of those hospitalized were reported to be Russian citizens.
At the moment of the blast, which hit the front of the train, “our electric locomotive jumped up immediately and glass started flying,” Alexei Fedotov, the engine driver, said on state-run television. “Of course, we were deafened. But we applied emergency braking and cut off electric power to the engine. Then our cabin roof simply flew away.”
Residents had seen suspicious men in the area in the past few days, authorities added.
Composite drawings of two suspects had been prepared by Tuesday evening, Russian media reported.
Politicians and analysts suggested that the attack could be linked to separatist rebels in Chechnya or other Islamic militants in southern Russia’s troubled Caucasus region. Some Kremlin critics expressed concern that it could be a provocation aimed at influencing Russian politics, perhaps to offer President Vladimir Putin a pretext to remain in power.
