Bus Bomb Kills Eight in Russian City of Tolyatti

Eight people were killed and 56 injured in the Russian city of Tolyatti today when
a bomb exploded on a passenger bus during rush hour.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility but prosecutors opened a
terrorism investigation into the blast, which took place shortly after 8am
(0500GMT). The victims were thought to be mostly students, and three
children were also among the injured.

An attack by Chechen separatists could not be ruled out but is likely to be
only one of several lines of inquiry. Tolyatti, which is in the Samara region some 500 miles east of Moscow, is home to the AvtoVaz car maker and has a reputation for violent turf wars linked to its huge sprawling factory, which makes the Russian Lada.

Police dismissed an initial theory that a gas canister had exploded on the
bus, saying a bomb had most likely been attached to the underside of the
vehicle or placed on the floor. It was also possible that a passenger was
carrying the device, they said.

President Vladimir Putin ordered his representative in the region,
Alexander Konovalov, to take "all possible measures" to help the injured.
Television pictures showed the green bus in a busy street with part
of its right side torn away and debris scattered around. A dead woman lay
slumped in one seat. First and second floor windows in nearby buildings
were blown out by the force of the explosion.

Police said they had found shards of the explosive device, which had a
force equal to 1kg of TNT.

An operational headquarters led by the federal security service (FSB) was
set up in the city to control the investigation. "The main version is
terrorism," the governor of Samara, Vladimir Artyakov, told journalists after
meeting police and security officials. The FSB rejected rumors in local
media that there had been a second explosion in the city.

Tolyatti, an industrial city of 700,000 people on the Volga river and which was
named after an Italian communist, is known for rampant organized crime.
Since 1995 at least five journalists have been assassinated in the city
including two editors of the Tolyatti Review, which specializes in exposing
corruption.

AvtoVaz has been plagued by financial mismanagement since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 with employees running competing side-businesses selling
parts. Last year the board of the company was taken over by government
officials as part of a trend towards increased state control over strategic
assets.

The Russian mafia have often used explosive devices as a means of settling
scores with rivals.