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Russia’s Investigative Committee to petition court for supermarket blast suspect’s arrest

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee will petition the court to arrest the suspect in the explosion of Perekrestok supermarket in St. Petersburg, the committee’s Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said on Saturday.

"Investigators will be petitioning the court for his arrest," she said adding the suspect was questioned at the Investigative Committee.

Earlier in the day, the public relations center of Russia’s FSB Federal Security Service said that the perpetrator and organizer of the explosion at the Perekrestok supermarket in St. Petersburg had been detained and handed over to the Russian Investigative Committee.

On December 27, a homemade explosive device packed with lethal components was detonated near self-lockers of the Perekrestok supermarket on the first floor of the Gigant-Hall entertainment center in St. Petersburg’s Kondratyevsky Avenue. The bomb produced a blast equivalent to 200g of TNT. Eighteen people are reported to be injured in the blast. The Investigative Committee defined the explosion as an attempted murder against two and more persons.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin described the blast as a terrorist act.

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