THE oldest victim was 71 years old, the youngest just 18. One was a third-year university student described by a teacher as "pretty, smart, sweet and intelligent". Another was a middle-aged mother known for sewing and selling elaborate dolls. They all entered the St Petersburg underground on the afternoon of April 3rd expecting to return home.
An attacker had other plans. A bomb ripped through the third carriage of a train travelling beneath the city centre at around 2.40pm, leaving 14 dead and some 50 more wounded. "There was a bang, and dust," said the train's driver, Alexander Kaverin. Russian security officials say that the attacker left a second, larger explosive device at another station, though it did not detonate. That the bombing came as President Vladimir Putin (pictured) was visiting St Petersburg enhanced the symbolic significance of the first terrorist attack on a major Russian city in more than three years.
Previous terrorist attacks on Russian transport infrastructure, such as the bombings of Moscow's metro in 2004 and 2010, and its international airport in 2011, have been linked to insurgencies in the restive North Caucasus region. But this...
The Economist: Europe