VOLGOGRAD, October 22. (ITAR-TASS). — Bodies of all victims of the terrorist attack in Volgograd have been identified, as Yekaterina Golod, spokesperson for the region’s governor, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“Today in Volgograd was finished the identification of bodies, and the victims’ names have been established. These were young people, teenagers: Yelena Mikhailova (1984), Yulia Prikhodchenko (1991), Maria Popadinets (1995), Viktoria Koneva (1993), Maxim Litkov (1996) and Kirill Litvinenko (1995),” the press secretary noted.
Number of injured increased to 41
“The number of injured as a result of the blast in Volgograd’s bus reached 41 people, as many people consulted a doctor outpatiently overnight. After an examination and medical treatment 11 people returned home, and the rest stay at hospitals #15,#7 and #1 of Volgograd,” Golod said.
Meanwhile, Alexander Nazaruk, a surgeon practicing in city hospital #15 where the majority of the injured stays, dismissed rumors that the patients had “arms and legs torn apart” after the terrorist attack. “Only one woman had a leg to be taken off; the rest of injuries are shell fragment wounds, burns, and, of course, many are experiencing psychological stress after what they’ve gone through,” the surgeon explained.
What has been found out
“It has been established that (the suicide bomber that blew up the bus Naida) Asiyalova arrived in Volgograd from Makhachkala on a bus en route to Moscow. For reasons unknown, she got off the bus in the area of the Volgograd Academy of the Interior Ministry about an hour before the terrorist attack,” Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
“According to preliminary data, experts estimate the blast power at about 500-600 grams TNT, and the explosive device, which was set off by Asiyalova, was packed with metal objects - dowels,” the Investigative Committee spokesman said.
Within the framework of the criminal investigation a complex of legal expertise has been initiated, in particular, forensic and blasting expertise. On Tuesday, the investigators have started to further examine the scene to determine other circumstances of the explosion, as well as to detect the elements of the bomb.
The Makhachkala gang, in which the common law husband of terrorist Naida Asiyalova is a saboteur, consists of up to 25 gunmen, a source in the Dagestani law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Asiyalova staged a blast in a bus in the city of Volgograd, the southeast of the European part of Russia, on Monday.
The identity kits of Sokolov known as Abdul-Jabar and suspected of involvement in the suicide bombing in Volgograd as well as two other people (Ruslan Kazanbiyev and Kurbat Omarov) were sent to all police stations in southern and central districts of Russia and Moscow Region. They were put on the wanted list, sources in the law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass.
Eyewitness: “The headscarf had a beautiful pattern”
Students of the Polytechnic College were helping victims to get out of the bus that was blown up in Volgograd. This told Itar-Tass Yevgeniy Bulatnikov who came to visit his friends to the hospital.
“I was also in this bus with the guys, but decided to get off at the ‘Vtorchermet’ stop, it’s before the ‘Lesobasa’ near which the explosion occurred. When I got off, I heard a strong boom, turned back and saw that the bus was in smoke. I rushed there, the others were also helping, and the emergencies also came very quickly,” Bulatnikov told.
He said that he was standing literally in 15 centimeters from a woman in headscarf. “I was looking upon her headscarf, it had a very beautiful pattern. And then, when I got off the bus, it turned out that Nikita Gnusov took my place. He was wounded, and I could be in his place. It could end even worse,” the young man said.
Three students from Volgograd - Nikita Gnusov, Alexander Malmin, Vladimir Kukhar, those whom came to visit their friend Eugene Bulatnikov, stand in a hospital room with bandaged hands. They shift from foot to foot, and seem almost indifferent to all the rush around. Reporters’ questions, cheers of their mate - all remain unaddressed, the guys are silent. “Another aftermath of a psychological shock,” the doctors from the trauma unit of the hospital explain. The mother of one of the students appears. She asks everyone out of the room: “Stay away from our children, they need rest.”
The blast that occurred Monday afternoon in a passenger bus in Volgograd claimed lives of 6 people, and 37 people were taken to hospital. Eight of them were placed in intensive care facilities. Four people are in critical condition.
Upon the explosion has been filed a criminal case under 3 articles – “terrorist attack”, “murder of two or more people” and “illegal arms and explosives trafficking”.
Three days of mourning were declared in the Volgograd region.