Newspaper headlines: St Petersburg blast and Gibraltar row By BBC News

Staff Published duration 4 April 2017

image copyright Reuters image caption Tributes were laid for the victims outside the Tekhnologicheskiy Institut metro station

Many of the papers focus on yesterday's explosion on the St Petersburg Metro.

The Daily Mirror has a photograph of the train with the side of the carriage mangled by one of the blasts and bodies lying on the platform next to it.

In its leader, the paper argues that President Putin's violent oppression in parts of Russia, and "indiscriminate" airstrikes in Syria, have fuelled extremism.

But it goes on to say that it hopes the Kremlin will not use the attack as an excuse to "clamp down on democratic opponents".

It is launching a campaign to keep the territory British and includes a free "Hands off our Rock" poster, which also has the message in Spanish - "Nuestra roca, so se toca".

The Guardian suggests that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will tell his German counterpart on Tuesday that Britain won't use defence and security issues for leverage in the Brexit talks, as long as Gibraltar isn't used by the European Union as a bargaining chip.

The Financial Times concludes that, even though the row is unlikely to scupper negotiations, it is a reminder of how difficult they are going to be.

Easter row

The lead in the Daily Telegraph is a story about the Church of England's anger at the National Trust for leaving the word "Easter" out of publicity for its annual egg hunt.

A spokesman for the trust insists the organisation is "in no way downplaying the significance of Easter", but that chocolate firm Cadbury - which is sponsoring the event - is responsible for the branding.

Cadbury tells the Telegraph that it wants to appeal to "people from all faiths".

But the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, is quoted saying that its decision is tantamount to "spitting on the grave" of the firm's founder, John Cadbury, because he was a devout Quaker.

Slap threat

The Daily Mail believes questions remain unanswered about the threat made by Sunderland football manager David Moyes that he would slap a BBC radio reporter, because she had asked him an awkward question.

The paper wants to know why, when the incident happened two weeks ago, it has taken until now for it to come out.

image copyright PA image caption David Moyes has apologised for the remark.

The Mail says it is especially perplexing because four broadcasters had access to the recording of what happened, but none of them chose to break the story.

The grammar police