St Petersburg supermarket blast: Russian authorities detain man who organised and executed bombing

Moscow: A person suspected of being involved in an explosion at St Petersburg supermarket that took place on Wednesday has been detained, Russian authorities said. An explosive device placed in a locker went off at a supermarket in a shopping centre in St Petersburg on Wednesday, injuring at least 13 people. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Saturday that it had identified and detained the organiser and direct executor of the bombing and handed over the suspect to the Russian Investigative Committee for further investigation, Xinhua reported. Anna Mityanina, vice governor of Saint Petersburg, which is Russia’s second city, said on Twitter on Wednesday that of the 13 wounded eight remained in hospital care. [caption id=“attachment_4281623” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An explosion rocked St Petersburg on Wednesday. Reuters[/caption] Five people declined to be hospitalised, she added. The explosion occurred at around 18:45 local time as Russians geared up to celebrate the New Year - the country’s biggest holiday - followed by Russian Orthodox Christmas, which falls on 7 January. In a sign of the severity of the situation, the case was overseen by Russia’s National Anti-Terror Committee even though authorities initially opened a probe into attempted murder.

The committee said the explosion went off after “a criminal placed an unidentified explosive device in a storage locker.”

Russian investigators immediately began to work with the suspect, who is currently being interrogated, according to a separate statement by the Investigative Committee. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the bombing was an act of terrorism . “As you know, an act of terror took place in Saint Petersburg yesterday,” he said on Thursday at a meeting of military officers in the Kremlin. With inputs from agencies