MOSCOW: Russia said Sunday that a stabbing which injured seven people and was claimed by the Daesh group is being probed by top investigators in Moscow, as new details emerged.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack in the remote city of Surgut along with the attacks in Spain that killed 14 through its Amaq propaganda agency, calling the attacker “a soldier of the Islamic State (Daesh).”
A black-clad attacker in a balaclava ranged through central streets of the city around 2,100 kilometers (1,330 miles) northeast of Moscow on Saturday morning, stabbing people apparently at random before being shot by police.
Russia, which initially said the theory of terrorism was “not the main one” being considered, has opened a criminal probe into attempted murder and has not reacted officially to the Daesh claim.
The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said in a statement on Sunday that “due to the wide public reaction,” its chief Alexander Bastrykin has put the case directly under control of its central apparatus in Moscow.
Investigators said they had carried out searches of the attacker’s home and were establishing the circumstances and the “motive for the attacker’s actions.”
The attacker was born in 1998, the Investigative Committee said, while previously it had said he was born in 1994.
Unconfirmed media reports on Saturday had described the attacker as a 19-year-old whose father originates from Dagestan in Russia’s mainly-Muslim North Caucasus region.
Video posted by Izvestia newspaper on its website on Sunday showed the attacker, a slim young man, lying on the ground dressed all in black with a red object taped round his waist.
NTV television aired witness video of a policeman chasing the attacker through streets and firing apparently at his head, after which the attacker falls to the ground.
Earlier investigators said that they were looking into the attacker’s “possible psychiatric disorders.”
One of the stabbing victims remained in a serious condition while the others were stable, investigators said.
Late Saturday, the governor of the region Natalya Komarova visited the wounded in hospital. She said one victim was fighting for his life.
Russia steps up probe into attack claimed by Daesh
Russia steps up probe into attack claimed by Daesh
Bomb attacks on Thailand petrol stations injure 4: army
- Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks
BANGKOK: Assailants detonated bombs at nearly a dozen petrol stations in Thailand’s south early Sunday, injuring four people, the army said, the latest attacks in the insurgency-hit region.
A low-level conflict since 2004 has killed thousands of people as rebels in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia battle for greater autonomy.
Several bombs exploded within a 40-minute period after midnight on Sunday, igniting 11 petrol stations across Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, an army statement said.
Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks.
“It happened almost at the same time. A group of an unknown number of men came and detonated bombs which damaged fuel pumps,” Narathiwat Governor Boonchauy Homyamyen told local media, adding that one police officer was injured in the province.
A firefighter and two petrol station employees were injured in Pattani province, the army said.
All four were admitted to hospitals, none with serious injuries, a Thai army spokesman told AFP.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that security agencies believed the attacks were a “signal” timed with elections for local administrators taking place on Sunday, and “not aimed at insurgency.”
The army’s commander in the south, Narathip Phoynok, told reporters he ordered security measures raised to the “maximum level in all areas” including at road checkpoints and borders.
The nation’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago.
The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces — the usual targets of insurgent attacks.
