Weeks After Trump Tip, Blast Hits St. Petersburg

At least 10 hurt in supermarket explosion
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 28, 2017 1:52 AM CST
Blast Injures 10 at St. Petersburg Supermarket
Police stand at the entrance of a supermarket after an explosion in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017.   (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

At least 10 people were injured Wednesday by an explosion at a supermarket in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city and the site of a deadly subway bombing this year. The Investigative Committee, the nation's top investigative agency, said a device containing 7 ounces of explosives went off at a storage area for customers' bags. It said the device was rigged with shrapnel to cause more damage. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion at a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain in the city's Kalininsky district, the AP reports. Alexander Klaus, chief of the local branch of the Investigative Committee, said 10 people were hospitalized with injuries.

Viktoria Gordeyeva, a St. Petersburg resident who walked past the supermarket shortly after the explosion, said there was no panic, but people were afraid to enter other stores in the area. While officials stopped short of branding the explosion as a terror attack, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which oversees anti-terror efforts in Russia, said it was coordinating the search for suspects. Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Trump earlier this month to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St. Petersburg, Putin's home town. Russia's Federal Security Service said seven suspects linked to ISIS were arrested in connection to the alleged plot.

(More St. Petersburg stories.)

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