A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the en-
trance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday, killing at least 14 people in the second deadly attack
within three days as the country prepares to host
the Winter Olympics. The bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector just inside the
main entrance of Volgograd station. Authorities said
the woman detonated her explosives after police
noticed she looked suspicious and one began to approach her. The toll would have been much higher if
she had made it into the station waiting hall. Footage
shown on TV showed a massive orange fireball filling
the stately colonnaded hall and smoke billowing out
through shattered windows. A spokesman for Russian investigators said at least 14 people were killed.
The regional governor put the toll at 15. At least 42
were wounded. President Vladimir Putin ordered law
enforcement agencies to take all necessary precautions to ensure security. A federal police spokesman
said measures would be tightened at stations and airports, with more officers on duty and stricter security
checks. The attack, just over two months after a female suicide bomber killed six people on a bus in the
same city, raised questions about the effectiveness
of security measures that the Kremlin routinely orders to be increased after bombings. It could add to
concerns about the government’s ability to safeguard
the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of
Sochi. The Games, which open in 40 days’ time, are a
major prestige project for Putin, who wants to show
how far Russia has come since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Female suicide bombers
- known as ‘black widows’ because some are the relatives of dead insurgents - have carried out several attacks claimed by Islamist militants. Volgograd lies just
above Russia’s restive North Caucasus region, a string
of mostly Muslim provinces that includes Chechnya, where Russia has fought two wars against separatists in the past two decades. The region is beset
by near-daily violence. The attacker may have come
from Dagestan, the province adjacent to Chechnya
that is now the center of the insurgency. An October
bus bomber was from the same region. Volgograd is a
city of around 1 million people, and a major transport
hub in southern Russia, about 430 miles northeast of
Sochi, where the Olympics will open on February 7.
Insurgent leader Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord,
urged militants in a video posted online in July to
use “maximum force” to prevent Putin staging the
Olympics. On Friday, a car bomb killed three people
in Pyatigorsk, close to the North Caucasus and 270
km (170 miles) east of Sochi. The possibility of more
attacks is greatest as militants seek to make the biggest impression. Since security measures are tightest
around Sochi, attackers can be expected to strike instead in nearby cities like Volgograd. Volgograd is one
of the venues for the 2018 soccer World Cup, another
high-profile sports event Putin has helped Russia win
the right to stage, and which will bring thousands of
foreign fans to cities around Russia. Sunday’s attack
was the deadliest to strike Russia’s heartland since
January 2011, when a male suicide bomber from the
North Caucasus killed 37 people in the arrivals hall of
a busy Moscow airport. The Investigative Committee
said the bomb detonated with a force equivalent to
at least 10 kg (22 lb) of TNT.