St Petersburg explosion: 10 dead after Metro blast

At least 10 people have died and 50 are injured after a device exploded on a train on the St Petersburg Metro.

A blast occurred at the Sennaya Ploshchad Metro station at around 2.30pm local time in Russia’s second largest city, according to news agency Tass.

Earlier reports suggested there was another explosion at the nearby Sadovaya Metro station. There are unconfirmed reports that a third explosive device was found at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya metro station.

The Russian prosecutor general has described the explosion a terrorist attack.

Images posted on social media show people outside a train with its doors blown open.

Andrey Kibitov, the head of the city governor’s press service, said 50 people had been injured.

A witnesses told Life News: “People were bleeding, their hair burned. We were told to move to the exit, because the movement stopped.

“People just fled. My girlfriend was in the next car that exploded. She said that he began to shake. When she came out, she saw that people were mutilated.”

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who is currently in St Petersburg, said that all possible causes of the blast are being considered, including terrorism.

No one has taken responsibility.

The metro said in a statement: “The entrance and exit to Tekhnologichesky Institut and Sennaya Ploshchad stations are closed, the trains are running without stopping. There is an evacuation of passengers.

Russia TV has also reported that the device was rigged with shrapnel. “The explosive device was rigged with destructive elements,” a Rossiya-24 presenter said on air.

The St Petersburg metro has shut down all stations following the explosion.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson said he was “horrified by news of explosion in St Petersburg.”