Russian police make eight new arrests in connection with bomb attack on subway that killed 13 and injured more than 50

Thousands of people gathered outside the Kremlin walls on Thursday in solidarity with the victims of Monday’s bomb blast in St Petersburg.

The rallies came as the police announced they had made eight new arrests in connection with the attack that killed 13 people and injured more than 50.

State television said more than 50,000 people had flocked to Manezh Square, though the real number appeared smaller and many people said they had been asked or told by their workplaces or universities to attend.

Nonetheless, there was genuine emotion as the names and biographies of the victims of Monday’s attack were read from a big stage. Those present brought red carnations and some let off black balloons.

In St Petersburg, investigators said they had arrested three men who were natives of the former Soviet republics of central Asia, as was the bomber, Akbarzhon Jalilov, 22, who was born in Kyrgyzstan but had a Russian passport.

St Petersburg bomb suspect identified as 22-year-old born in Kyrgyzstan Read more

A source told the Interfax news agency that investigators believed the men to be Jalilov’s accomplices. Elements of an explosive device were discovered at their apartment.

Residents of their building were evacuated before explosives experts were sent in to secure the scene. City authorities said an explosive device found inside the apartment had been defused.

No group has claimed responsibility for the subway bombing, though a history of Islamist violence in Russia and repeated threats from Islamic State to target the country after Russia intervened militarily in Syria in 2015 have meant Islamist terrorism is seen as the most likely cause.



The bomb detonated inside a carriage on a train travelling between stations on the city’s busy metro system. Investigators said Jalilov’s remains were found at the blast site, and his DNA was also found on a second bomb left at another subway station that did not explode.

Several Russian news agencies ran unverified stories citing sources in the investigation. The St Petersburg website fontanka.ru quoted an insider source who claimed Jalilov had returned to Russia from Turkey in 2014, and said authorities were investigating whether he had been in Syria. Others, however, suggested Jalilov may have been a “mule” used by others without being told that he was carrying a bomb. Little in the way of official information has been released.

On Wednesday authorities detained eight central Asian men on suspicion of being recruiters for Isis and al-Qaida, but there was no evidence offered that they were linked to Monday’s subway attack.

On Thursday eight people were detained in direct connection with the case – six in St Petersburg and two in Moscow.

The bomb appeared to have been made by an amateur, suggesting a relatively low-key operation, possibly inspired by Isis but not directly organised by the group, terror experts said. There are thousands of Russians and Russian speakers from former Soviet countries fighting with Isis, and security officials have long feared the threat from returning jihadis.

Also on Thursday, a bomb exploded in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, causing one injury. The explosives were in a plastic bag left near a school that detonated when it was picked up by a cleaner.

The centre of Moscow was closed off on Thursday evening for the anti-terror rally, which was accompanied by the slogan “Piter, we stand with you”, using the colloquial name for St Petersburg.

As well as sombre commemoration there was also anger. Vladimir Shamanov, the controversial former commander of Russian troops in Chechnya known for giving ruthless orders, addressed the crowd from the stage. “We hunted them down before, we’re hunting them down now and we’ll hunt them down in future, wherever they are, and we will show them no mercy,” he shouted.



While organisers made it clear that the rally was not a political event, many people brought flags of the NOD, a nationalist group that has harassed opposition politicians. Some critics have suggested the rallies are a cynical Kremlin-promoted exercise to use the terror threat to rally the population after the biggest anti-government protests in five years hit Moscow and other cities two weeks ago.

Rallies are planned for cities across Russia on Saturday, and a source close to the presidential administration told the Kommersant newspaper that the Kremlin had ordered anti-terror gatherings to be organised, “particularly in those places where there were big protests on 26 March”.