Ten people have been hospitalised with injuries after an explosion ripped through a supermarket in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Wednesday evening. The explosion occurred at the Perekrestok market in northwest St Petersburg. No one was killed. The explosion was caused by a homemade bomb packed with pieces of metal with a force equivalent to 200 grams of TNT, investigators said. They have opened a criminal case on the grounds of attempted murder.
The bomb had been hidden in a locker where shoppers leave their belongings in a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain, according to local reports. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion at the market in the city's northwest Kalininsky district, and the motive remains unclear. While officials stopped short of branding the explosion as a terror attack, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee that oversees anti-terror efforts in Russia said it was co-ordinating the search for suspects.
The Investigative Committee has sent experts to look into the explosion, and a criminal case was launched on the grounds of attempted mass murder.
'All possible versions of what has happened are being worked on,' Alexander Klaus, the head of St Petersburg's investigative committee, told Reuters.
'As of now, it has been established that 10 people were taken to the city's hospitals with injuries. At the moment, the lives of those injured are not under threat.'
More than 50 people were evacuated from the supermarket following the blast. There were thousands of people inside the shopping complex where the market is located at the time of the incident. It was especially busy because of New Year celebrations. The Perekrestok supermarket is located on the ground floor of the Gigant Hall leisure center, in the northwest part of St Petersburg.
Structurally, the only a wall and a cash register inside the supermarket were damaged in the explosion.
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