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IN BRIEF: Woman suspected of involvement in cafe explosion detained in St. Petersburg

The Russian Health Ministry said on Monday morning that the number of injured in the explosion had reached 32

© Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. Russian investigators on Monday detained Darya Trepova, suspected of involvement in an explosion at a cafe in St. Petersburg that resulted in the death of war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky (real name: Maxim Fomin). According to preliminary information, it was Trepova who handed Tatarsky a statuette that was packed with explosives.

The central office of Russia’s Investigative Committee is leading the probe into the criminal case of murder by generally dangerous means. The Russian Health Ministry said on Monday morning that the number of injured in the explosion had reached 32.

TASS has compiled the main details currently known about the incident.

Detained suspect

- St. Petersburg resident Darya Trepova, born in 1997, is suspected of involvement in the murder of war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. According to the Investigative Committee’s press service, she has been detained in St. Petersburg.

- Earlier, Trepova had been placed on the wanted list.

- According to preliminary reports, it was Trepova who handed Tatarsky a statuette that turned out to have been packed with explosives. On Sunday evening, law enforcement officers conducted a search of the woman’s residence in St. Petersburg; her mother and sister were questioned.

- In 2022, Trepova participated in an unsanctioned rally on the day Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine began and was put under administrative arrest for 10 days, according to records on file at the Krasnoselsky District Court and the St. Petersburg City Court.

Criminal case

- The criminal case triggered by the cafe bombing, opened under Part 2, Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Murder by generally dangerous means"), was referred for investigation to the Investigative Committee’s central office.

- Experts from the Main Criminalistics Directorate (Criminalistics Center) of the Russian Investigative Committee have been dispatched to St. Petersburg.

Casualties

- The number of injured in the blast has risen to 32, the Russian Health Ministry reported.

- According to the St. Petersburg Health Committee, the condition of eight victims is assessed as serious, while nine people have been discharged for outpatient treatment. Another victim immediately refused hospitalization and was treated on an outpatient basis. The others are in moderate to satisfactory condition.

- Journalist Tatyana Lubina and Immortal Regiment movement organizer in Tallinn, Sergey Chaulin, who was deported from Estonia in February, are among the injured.

Cafe explosion

- On Sunday evening, an explosion ripped through a cafe on Universitetskaya Embankment in central St. Petersburg. At the time, war blogger Maxim Fomin, known by the pseudonym Vladlen Tatarsky, was holding an event there. He was killed on the spot.

- According to preliminary data, an explosive device with a yield of more than 200 grams of TNT went off near the stage.

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