All news

City authorities around the globe strengthen preventive measures after blast in Russia

Mayor Bill de Blasio added that the city’s authorities would focus more efforts and forces on ensuring security on the subway

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. New York authorities will allocate more funding on counter-terrorism efforts following a subway blast in Russia’s St. Petersburg on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a crime statistics presser.

"It is troubling to see this attack in St. Petersburg at the very same time as our federal government is trying to cut back the Homeland Security funding that helps protect our subways," the Observer newspaper quoted de Blasio as saying. He added that the city’s authorities would focus more efforts and forces on ensuring security on the subway

The NYPD (New York City Police Department) said that there were "no specific or credible threats to New York City" at this time, but that it had deployed or redeployed its Critical Response Command resources to any Russian targets in the city. Such moves are customary following high-profile attacks in other cities around the globe, the Observer wrote.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill said that the recent attacks "prove that acts of terror are not a matter of it but when."

Meanwhile, France’s interior minister, Matthias Fekl, redeployed security in public transport around Paris. "Amid an extremely high terrorism threat, the government continues to take measures to protect the French people," the ministry said in a statement. Currently a state of emergency is in force across France following terror attacks in Paris in November 2015.

Security measures have been put on maximum alert on the New Delhi subway following the blast in St. Petersburg. Officials said the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), tasked to secure over 150 stations of the rail network with a daily footfall of about 26 lakh people, has issued orders to exercise the "highest possible measure of alert" by strengthening regular security drills.

"The measures have been put in place keeping in mind the enhanced security of the Delhi Metro in the wake of the blasts in St. Petersburg in Russia. Instructions have been issued that passenger convenience is kept as the priority and minimum hassles are rendered to commuters," a senior officer was quoted as saying.

An unidentified device went off at about 14:40 Moscow time on Monday in a subway train car when the train was moving from Tekhnologichesky Institut Station to Sennaya Ploshchad Station. The Russian Investigative Committee has qualified the blast as a terrorist attack, but other versions are looked into.

According to the latest data provided by the National Anti-terrorist Committee, the blast claimed 11 lives, and forty-five people were injured. Later Chief Directorate of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry for St. Petersburg said 51 people were injured.