Explosion at St. Petersburg, Russia grocery store leaves 13 injured - Putin calls it a terrorist attack, says police should take no prisoners

RT
Wed, 27 Dec 2017 18:24 UTC

© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik

Nine people have been taken to hospital following an explosion in a storage locker at a busy St. Petersburg supermarket. Over 50 people have been evacuated from the building.

"There was a bang. Emergency personnel are already on the scene. The evacuation has been completed, and there was no fire," a local Emergencies Ministry official told TASS news agency.

The victims were taken to the accident ward with injuries "of variable severity." One man refused hospitalization.

Officials are treating the investigation as a potential mass homicide attempt and say that the explosion was equivalent to 200g of TNT.

Footage showed multiple medical and police vehicles parked outside the Gigant Hall leisure center, where the Perekrestok supermarket, in which the incident occurred, is located on the ground floor.

There were thousands of visitors inside the shopping complex in the northeast of the Russian city, during what is the busiest time of the year in the run-up to the New Year celebrations.

Comment: Thirteen people were injured - six are still in hospital. The bomber arrived by shuttle bus, pretended to look at merchandise for less than a minute, placed the bomb, then left. CCTV footage shows him entering the store:

Putin called the bombing a terrorist attack:

Putin gave law enforcement officers carte blanche to act decisively and "take no prisoners" if suspected terrorists resist and a police officer's life is threatened. "You know that a terrorist attack was committed yesterday in St. Petersburg. Recently, the FSB [Federal Security Service] thwarted another attempt to commit an act of terrorism. And what would have happened if the thousands [of terrorists] whom I have just mentioned, returned [to Russia] - well trained and armed?" he said.

"I have instructed the director of the Federal Security Service... to act within the framework of the law during detention [of suspected terrorists.] But if there's a threat to a police officer's life and health, our officers need to act decisively, take no prisoners, kill the assailants on the spot."

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that Putin's words referred to those who plot terrorist attacks in Russia. When asked to specify where the terrorists would be eradicated - in Russia or overseas - Peskov replied: "No, we are talking about those who have plans to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of our country."

The statement came as Russia's Investigative Committee said all lines of inquiry into how the explosion in St. Petersburg had occurred remained open.