At least eight people were killed and 56 were injured on Wednesday in an explosion on a bus in the Russian city of Togliatti and authorities said they were treating the suspected bombing as a terrorist act. The early morning explosion on the bus, which came as people travelled to work in the rush hour, was probably caused by about 1 kg of explosives, local police sources were quoted by local news agencies as saying. Interfax said eight people were killed and 56 others injured in the incident, including passengers and bystanders. Some of those injured were in a critical condition, Interfax said. “A criminal case under the clause for terrorism has been opened,” Vladimir Artyakov, the governor of the local Samara region, where Togliatti is situated, was quoted as saying by RIA news agency. He said prosecutors had also opened criminal cases for murder and the illegal storage of explosives. “There is reason to believe that the explosive was planted either underneath or on the floor of the bus,” the police source was quoted as saying.
Togliatti, an industrial city on the banks of the Volga river, is more than 1,000 km southwest of Moscow and home to the countryÂ’s biggest carmaker, AvtoVaz, and is sometimes called RussiaÂ’s Detroit.