At least 14 people were killed in a suicide bombing on a trolleybus in the Volgograd, Russia, the second blast in as many days in the city, BBC News reported. 17 people died in another suicide bombing attack at the central station in the city on Sunday
Russia's foreign ministry called for international solidarity in the fight against "an insidious enemy that can only be defeated together," according to news reports.
The latest explosion took place in a busy market in the Dzerzhinsky district of Volgograd. The trolleybus was reportedly packed with people who were going to work during morning rush hour.
"It is now possible to preliminarily say that the explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber - a man whose body fragments have been collected and sent for genetic testing," the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The scene was described as terrible [as the bus was] ravaged [with] bodies everywhere, blood on the snow," said Maksim khmetov, a Russian TV reporter, according to BBC News.
Patients were in "bad condition with burns with multiple injuries typical of blast-induced wounds," said Heath Minister Veronika Skvortsova.
"A lot of people were going to work at that time," a spokesman for an emergency anti-terrorism task-force said, Interfax reported.
"The trolleybus has been literally blown into bits, there are very many fragments of human bodies. Five of the dead are lying in the bus, there are a lot of remains of human bodies," the spokesman added.
Volgograd is about 560 miles south of Moscow and 700 kilometers north east of Sochi where the Winter Olympics are set to begin in February.
The suicide blast is the second in last than 24 hours.
The first blast on Sunday rocked Volgograd-1 station at around 12:45, which killed people, according to The Moscow Times. That suicide bombing attack happened "between the station's front doors and the metal detectors leading into the main hall in the early afternoon. The central hall was filled with holiday passengers and especially crowded because several trains were running behind schedule," The Moscow Times also reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered security measures to be tightened across the country, as "increased patrols by auxiliary police force volunteers and intensified inspections of suspicious-looking people and bags," according to The Moscow Times.
An Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region caused many terrorist attacks in Russia in recent years.
"The members of the Security Council extended their condolences to the families of the victims and expressed their sympathy to all those injured in these heinous and cowardly acts, and to the people and the Government of the Russian Federation," The United Nations wrote in a formal statement.
"he members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism to justice, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard," it added.
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