People help a man wounded by an explosion in a subway station in downtown Minsk. (Anton Motolko, AFP/Getty Images / April 11, 2011)A powerful blast rocked the Minsk metro during evening rush hour Monday, killing 11 passengers and injuring 126 others in a crowded downtown subway station. Right of Belarus agencies said the explosion, on a platform at the station Oktyabrska?a as a train arrived, was an act of terrorism.The explosion shattered windows, injuring people in the train and the platform of the station, located near the presidential headquarters in the Centre of the capital of the Belarus.
"I just entered the station to pick up our daughter of my mother-in-law, when I felt a growing odour of and has seen many people rushing, some of them screaming,"Ivan Kaplun, an engineer who lives near the station. "said in a telephone interview.
Kaplun said he helped achieve a woman wounded, former body and pools of blood.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, often called the last dictator, placed flowers on the site of the explosion and rushes to his Office for an emergency meeting, after which he announced that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had offered to send a team of researchers.
"I must confess that we have been very seriously challenged," Lukashenko said in a speech televised late Monday. "It must be an adequate response and this answer must be found."
Lukashenko also expressed the desire to seek the assistance of the public to help "find these freaks".
The attack was the first in Minsk since July 3, 2008, when dozens of people were injured in a public park, as they celebrated independence day. The authors were not, although Lukashenko ordered every adult male in the digital country.
Lukashenko was re-elected in December, winning approximately 80% of the vote in a controversial election. Observers from the European Union refused to accept the results and inauguration of Lukashenko in January has been ignored by the more Western diplomats.
The tainted vote has also led to a protest from night election brutally crushed by the police, who arrested dozens of protesters, including several presidential candidates.
Lukashenko accused the West of funding opposition. "We might today be awakened in a different country," Lukashenko said during a Conference of press at the end of December, accusing the opposition of attempting to storm Government, encouraged by Western assistance and funding.
"When they say the West I absolutely do not trust them as probably they were trying to lull us… but now we see their true face."
Human rights activists warn of serious political repercussions after the explosion Monday. "Something tells me that the authorities can take advantage of the situation and repress the opposition with renewed vigour," said Valentin Stefanovich, Deputy Head of the Vyasna, a centre for human rights.
About 30 activists of the opposition, including ex-presidential candidates Nikolay Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov, are still in detention and face up to 15 years in prison despite the protests of night of the elections.
"That which is behind this mysterious barbarous and inhuman act has nothing to do with the opposition," Svetlana Kalinkina, editor of the independent newspaper "Narodnaya Volya", said in an interview with the Times. "But I am sure that the application of the Act will address the perpetrators among the opposition, as they always do."
Sergei.Loiko@LAtimes.com
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