Volgograd rocked by suicide bombing

Russian media reports, quoting law-enforcement sources, said that the explosion happened after a police officer tried to stop a suspicious young woman near security gates installed to prevent guns and explosives being taken inside the station. Security officials expressed hope that the bomber would be soon identified.

Soldiers found an unexploded grenade at the scene, Vladimir Markin, an investigative committee spokesman, told the news agency RIA. He said the metal frames installed at the entrances of all Russian railway stations and airports – a security measure often ridiculed in the Russian media – had prevented more casualties. A train from Moscow was due to arrive half an hour after the explosion took place.

Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is a railway hub on the route connecting European Russia with central Asia. It acts as a gateway to the Caucasus, and is 600 miles from Sochi, the Black Sea city where the Olympics are scheduled to start on 7 February. Russian authorities have insisted there will be no security threats to the event, despite the city lying just west of the restive North Caucasus region. In July Doku Umarov, leader of the remaining Chechen jihadist groups, warned that militants would try sabotage the Games.