Togliatti says farewell to bus blast victims
The Russian city of Togliatti has held funerals for those killed in a bus explosion on Wednesday. The blast in Russia's Samara region took the lives of eight and injured more than 60. Most of those killed were thought to be students.
Universities, where the dead had studied, have held special commemoration services. Locals are united in their grief as they continue to come to pay their last respects to the victims.
The attack is being treated as a terrorist act, although police have not entirely ruled out other theories, including the mishandling of explosives or a connection to organised crime.
Investigators believe their prime suspect was killed in the blast. They think the device was attached to his body.
“We have identified the person who, most likely, caused the explosion. The evidence found by investigators confirms his involvement. There are some things that the investigation team still hasn't finished but they are close to completion,” Federal Security Director, Nikolai Patrushev, said.
Meanwhile, a man has been detained by police for posting graphic pictures of the explosion on the Internet a few hours after it happened. He is reported to be one of the firemen working on the scene of the tragedy. They were gruesome pictures depicting bodies and debris at the scene of the accident.
“Photographs taken at the scene have been published on the Internet. The Security Service has identified the computer that was used to upload the pictures, as well as the person who did it. We’ve suspected that the photographs may have been taken by the terrorists’ accomplices in order to document the attack. It turned out, however, that this was a leak of classified information,” Dmitry Evdokimov, Samara FSB Spokesman, commented.
Security measures have been stepped up in the region. Both public transport and private cars are being checked.
“It’s rather a complicated procedure when we speak about the prevention of terrorist attacks in public transport. It’s impossible to search every bus passenger. We also cannot install special equipment for explosive detection as they do in airports, or employ sniffer dogs,” Arkady Baskaev, State Duma Deputy, says.
