Georgia Saddened by Explosion in St. Petersburg Metro
TBILISI – Officials in Tbilisi have offered condolences to the families of victims who died in the St. Petersburg Metro blast on April 3. The explosion killed 14 and injured over 50.
Deeply saddened with the news from St. #Petersburg. Our condolences to the friends and families of the victims.
— Giorgi Kvirikashvili (@KvirikashviliGi) April 3, 2017
The President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, also expressed his concern over the incident.
I'm deeply outraged over #StPetersburgMetro explosion that killed innocent people and left many injured. Our condolences to the families.
— President Of Georgia (@MargvelashviliG) April 3, 2017
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Georgia also offered condolences to the families of the victims.
Our condolences to the families of the victims of #SaintPetersburg metro stations blasts. We strongly condemn terrorism.
— MFA of Georgia (@MFAgovge) April 3, 2017
The MFA said that no Georgians have been reported among the killed or injured, and called on Georgian citizens who currently are in St Petersburg to coordinate with the Consular Department of Georgian Interests and take local police’s recommendations into account.
A hotline is active in the Swiss Embassy to the Russian Federation: +7 926 926 2740. A round-the-clock hotline is also active in the Consular Department of Georgia’s Foreign Ministry.
The BBC reports that according to the head of Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee, the blast hit a train between Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations. The committee said an explosive device was later found and disabled at another station nearby.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the explosion was a "terrorist attack." Later, Russian news agency Tass said that Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) has qualified the explosion as a terrorist attack. “At the same time, the investigators are not excluding other versions, apart from terrorism,” the IC spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told Tass.
The administration of St. Petersburg has declared three days of mourning starting Tuesday, the governor’s spokesman Andrey Kibitov wrote on Twitter. In light of the St. Petersburg metro blast, transport security measures have been tightened in Moscow as well.
By Thea Morrison
Photo source: tass.ru