Explosives seized near railway in Karelia
A car with explosives was found near the railway station in the Karelian town of Segezha. The explosives was sized Wednesday, but the news was released today as Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on a televised questions and answers session said that Russia would “break the spine” of terrorism and demanded tough action against “criminals” who attacked their own people.
There are different reports Thursday afternoon about what is actually sized. Russian news-agency RIA Novosti quotes Northwest Russia’s acting police chief Vadim Kashirin saying a car packed with explosives and weapons was intercepted near the city of Petrozavodsk by station security.
Interfax quotes Kashirin saying the car was sized at the square near the railway station in the town of Segezha. The town is in the northern part of Karelia on the railroad between Petrozavodsk and Murmansk. An explosive device and guns were found, according to the police.
Associated Press (AP) quoted the Interior Ministry spokesman, Sergei Lillo, saying police have detained a man who was carrying a self-made explosive device. The man with the explosive device was passenger of a taxi in the town of Segezha. Lillo said the suspect also had two self-made pistols.
Russian law-enforcement officials have stepped up security patrols at possible terrorism targets amid their manhunt for suspects in the Nov. 27 attack on the luxury train Nevsky Express en route to St. Petersburg from Moscow. 27 people were killed in the train-bombing, one of the worst terrorist attack in Russia in recent years.
- All of society, every one of us, needs to be aware of this threat that has been with us all these years, Vladimir Putin said in the live call-in television show with the nation on Thursday.
After the terrorist attack on the Moscow – St. Petersburg train last Friday, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev yesterday signed a special order on the prevention of terrorist acts on railways.
- It’s comprehensive and includes not only social and economic issues, but also issues associated with security,” the president said to Itar-Tass.
The order also sets a rigid timeframe for the investigation of terrorist acts.
