Russia: Eight dead after bus bomb blast

by Barry Artiste | October 31, 2007 at 09:52 am | 426 views | add comment

Burnt out Bus, possible Russian Mob retribution

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Russia known for it's Mafia Protectionist rackets with individual crime families controlling their own city block extracting payments from shop keepers. Some say it has grown to include major factories with non payment for protection resulting to dire consquences for non payment making those to wonder if the recent bus bombing in the city of Togliatti is related.

MOSCOW -- A bomb exploded in a passenger bus Wednesday morning in Togliatti, a city that is the headquarters of Russia's largest carmaker, killing eight people and injuring 48, officials said.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the explosive device was being carried by a passenger or had been planted somewhere inside or beneath the bus, according to Russian news agencies.

The explosion occurred at a busy intersection near a bus stop in the center of town as people were going to work.

Valery Matkovsky, a local emergency official, said that eight people were killed and 48 injured.

It was not clear whether the injured included people who had not been on the bus.

Andrei Derbenev, a spokesman for the Togliatti rescue service, told the ITAR-Tass agency that the blast was so powerful that windows on nearby residential buildings shattered.

Togliatti, in central Russia, is a city on the Volga River known as the headquarters of AvtoVAZ. The city has a reputation for gang violence as varying groups have competed for control over the lucrative factory.