Female suicide bomber kills 16 at Russia train station

In this photo taken on a cell phone, made available by Volgograd Mayor’s Office, bodies lie at an entrance to Volgograd railway station, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. More then a dozen people were killed and scores were wounded Sunday by a suicide bomber at a railway station in southern Russia, officials said, heightening concern about terrorism ahead of February’s Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. AP

MOSCOW – A female suicide bomber killed at least 16 people Sunday in an attack on the main train station of the southern Russian city of Volgograd, heightening security fears just six weeks before the Sochi Olympic Games.

Investigators said the unidentified woman set off her charge after being stopped by a police officer at the metal detectors of the central entrance to the station when it was packed with people travelling to celebrate the New Year.

Footage captured by a nearby camera showed a huge orange fireball blow out the heavy front doors and windows from the grey stone three-storey building. Thick billows of smoke then poured out as people scattered along the rain-soaked street.

Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said officials had launched an inquiry into a suspected “act of terror”. It was the deadliest attack in Russia in almost three years.

“A suicide bomber who was approaching a metal detector saw a law enforcement official and, after growing nervous, set off an explosive device,” Markin said in televised comments.

Doctors and police said 16 people were killed and nearly 45 injured by the explosive equivalent of more than 10 kilogrammes (16 pounds) of TNT.

Russia’s interior ministry said it was immediately stepping up security at all the nation’s main train stations and airports.

“These measures involve a greater police presence and more detailed passenger checks,” an interior ministry spokesman told the Interfax news agency.

The Volgograd government also introduced a heightened terror alert level in the region for the coming two weeks.

The lifenews.ru website and state-run RIA Novosti identified the bomber as a Dagestani woman named Oksana Aslanova who had been married to two different Islamists killed in battles with federal forces.

Investigators added that she may have been assisted in her attack by a man they identified only by the last name of Pavlov.

Female suicide bombers are often referred to in Russia as “black widows” — women who seek to avenge the deaths of their family members in the fighting by targeting Russian civilians.