Moscow: At least 10 people were killed and 50 injured when an explosion tore through a train carriage in Russia's second city St. Petersburg underground metro system on Monday, according to Russian authorities.
Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the blast was caused by a bomb filled with shrapnel.
President Vladimir Putin, who was himself in St. Petersburg for a meeting with Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko, said he was considering all possible causes for the blast, including terrorism. He was consulting with security services, according to Reuters.
Ambulances and fire engines descended on the concrete-and-glass Sennaya Ploshchad metro station. A helicopter hovered overhead as crowds gathered.
Video showed injured people lying bleeding on a platform, some being treated by emergency services and fellow passengers. Others ran away from the platform amid clouds of smoke, some screaming or holding their hands to their faces.
A huge hole was blasted in the side of a carriage with metal wreckage strewn across the platform. Passengers were seen hammering at the windows of one closed carriage.
Emergency services vehicles rushed to the scene at the Technological Institute metro station, a key transport hub.
Andrei Kibitov, a spokesman for the Saint Petersburg governor, said: "We don't know the exact number of those killed, but it is about 10 people."
He added that about 50 people were injured, two of which were undergoing emergency surgery.
The blast caused scenes of confusion, with traffic blocked on Moskovsky Prospect, a busy throughfare and emergency vehicles rushing to the station, according to AFP.
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