Russian Train Derailment Called Terrorism



(Bologoye, Russia) A bomb exploded on the railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, causing a high-speed express train to derail and killing at least 26 people. According to Russia's railway chief Vladimir Yakunin, evidence has also been found of a second home-made explosive device.

"Indeed, this was a terrorist attack," said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee within the Russian prosecution system.

Three cars of the Nevsky Express train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg went off the tracks at 9:30 p.m. Moscow time (1830 GMT) Friday near the town of Bologoye on the border between the Tver and Novgorod regions, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

According to latest reports, 18 people are missing. It's noteworthy that a similar derailment occurred on the same line two years ago.

The same train service was derailed in 2007 injuring at least 30 people in a blast that the authorities pinned on Chechen rebel sympathisers.

The man the authorities said masterminded that attack – a former Russian soldier turned Islamist extremist – was never caught and is still on the run.

Note that the ex-soldier is still at large. In any event, despite suspicions the derailment remains to be fully confirmed as a terrorist act.