At least 14 people were killed in a blast at a railway station in the city of Volgograd, southern Russia. A female suicide bomber is suspected to have carried out the attack, says the National Anti-terrorism Committee.

"According to preliminary reports, this was a terrorist act. Fourteen people have lost their lives, 34 were injured, 8 of them more critically than others. An Emergencies plane is waiting to be dispatched from Moscow," Russia's Investigative Committee said.

However, the Health Ministry confirms that 33 people have been taken to hospital. According to the Investigative Committee, a child of 9 was among the injured.



The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism, the committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

The blast took place at 12.45 local time inside the building of the railway. It is "thought to have been carried out by a female suicide bomber," according to the anti-terrorism committee's statement.

“At 12.45 we got informed that a boom or a blast was heard in the building of the railway station, Volgograd-1. Smoke was reported,” Svetlana Smolyaninova, a police spokesperson said, according to RIA Novosti.

The power of the explosion at Volgograd’s station was equivalent to at least 10 kg TNT, according to Markin. The explosive device was stuffed with pieces of scrap metal.

Interfax’s source said that “the blast happened near the metal detectors located at the entrance to the station.”

The Committee think a female suicide bomber detonated the bomb when she saw a police officer while approaching the metal detector. 

The bomber’s identity has not been established yet. A genetic examination has been ordered.

One witness told the news agency that he saw "two bodies lying in front of the entrance, pieces of shattered glass are everywhere, there's a ton of rubble there." He added that "apparently, the explosion led to a fire, which the firefighters quickly put out."

Another witness said that the windows on both levels of the station have been shattered and that "the police have cordoned off the area, nobody's allowed on the premises. There's a very heavy police presence, emergency ministry officials, bomb squads... it's understandable that people are afraid, but there aren't any screams or panicking."

According to one of the accounts shared on a social network, people around the station thought a plane might have crashed because of the thick fog.

“The blast was really strong so my mother and everybody around thought there was a plane crash,” a woman said after she reached her mother on the phone. “Somebody shouted: there is an explosion inside the railway station. My mother said there was a lot of smoke.”

There are currently 30 ambulances working at the scene.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered that all the necessary measures be taken to assist survivors and provide security in Volgograd, the Kremlin reported.

Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people, about 690 km northeast of Sochi and close to Russia's volatile region of North Caucasus. The city saw a terrorist attack just in October, when a suicide bomber blew herself up in a bus, killing six people and injuring more than 30 others.

On Friday, a car bomb killed three people, all passerbys, in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk as a homemade explosive device went off outside the Road Traffic Safety Department. Funerals are scheduled for December 30.

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