At least 10 people were injured on 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.

Russia’s investigative committee said a device containing 200 grams of explosives had gone off at a storage area for customers’ bags. It said the device had been rigged with shrapnel to cause more injuries.

No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion at a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain in the north-western Kalininsky district of the city.

Alexander Klaus, the chief of the local branch of the investigative committee, said 10 people had been taken to hospital with injuries.

Andrey Kibitov, a spokesman for St Petersburg’s governor, tweeted that the injured were in satisfactory condition and one had been discharged from hospital.

A criminal investigation has been launched.



While officials stopped short of branding the explosion a terror attack, Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said it was coordinating the search for suspects.

Viktoria Gordeyeva, who walked past the supermarket shortly after the explosion, said people were afraid to enter other stores in the area.

“There was no panic, but people were reluctant to enter a nearby drug store and a grocery store,” she said.

Another local resident – Marina Bulanova, a doctor – heard the explosion and rushed to see if she could help any of the injured. She said ambulance crews had already taken the victims to hospitals in the city by the time she got there.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, telephoned his US counterpart, Donald Trump, this month to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St Petersburg, Putin’s home town.

Seven suspects linked to Islamic State were arrested in connection to the alleged plot. The Kremlin said the arrested suspects had planned to bomb Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites.

In April, a suicide bombing in the St Petersburg subway killed 16 people and wounded more than 50. Russian authorities identified the bomber who blew himself up as Akbardzhon Dzhalilov, a 22-year-old Kyrgyz-born Russian national.