Suicide bombing in Volgograd, Russia kills 17

(Vatican Radio) Russian officials say as many as 17 people, including two police officers, have died and 50 others were injured in a suicide blast that devastated a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd. Sunday's blast comes at a time when Islamic militants try to disrupt the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.


Listen to Stefan Bos' report:


Rescue workers rushed to the scene after officials said a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of the main train station in the city of Volgograd, killing more than a dozen people.



Aleksandr Koblikov told Russia Today Television that he narrowly survived the blast. "I approached the scene of the terrorist attack and there were more than 20 people lying on the ground around here. There were police and rescue workers at the site. The blast was very powerful."



The attack follows a car bomb in Pyatigorsk that killed three people on Friday, while in October another female suicide attacker also struck Volgograd, killing seven people. Volgograd lies near Russia’s North Caucasus, a strip of mostly Muslim provinces where militants are trying to establish an Islamic state.


The latest violence comes after Islamist leader and Chechen warlord, Doku Umarov, urged his fighters to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from staging the Olympics. The Games are to be held in February in the Black Sea city of Sochi, nearly 700 kilometres from devastated Volgograd, where three days of mourning have been announced.