The explosion at the Oktyabrskaya metro station is a terrorist attack that occurred on April 11, 2011 at 17:55:50 local time in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. As a result of the attack 15 people were killed, 204 were injured.
According to the recordings of surveillance cameras of the Minsk metro, the explosion at the Oktyabrskaya metro station occurred at 17 55 minutes 50 seconds local time. It was later announced that it had detonated an unknown device. The blast wave flew to neighboring metro stations. And in the lobby of the "October" suspended ceiling. Despite the heavy smoke, people without panic left the metro, while helping women and children. At the exits from the metro towards Guma and towards the House of Officers there were many wounded, some in unconsciousness, with very serious injuries.
Employees of the Ministry of Emergencies, the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs work at the scene. According to sappers, from the explosion on the platform a funnel with a diameter of about 80 cm was formed
Shortly after the incident, Internet and mobile communications malfunctions due to a large number of requests to news sites and citizens' phone calls. After a few hours, the situation returned to normal.
After the attack
The day after the explosion, the Minsk metro was taken under heavy guard. At the entrances of stations of the second metro line, police officers were on duty at the turnstiles, while the first metro line did not work, and at the Kupalovskaya station of the second line there were no passengers boarding or disembarking.
In the morning, 8 out of 12 dead were identified. At 11:00, the ninth dead was identified. On the evening of April 12, all victims of the attack were identified.
At 11:00 a.m. there was information about a new explosion, now the bus number 100, but later this information was refuted. The mayor of Minsk held an operational meeting at the scene of the tragedy and stated that there was no panic among the population.
Belarusian law enforcement authorities detained and placed in jail three distributors of provocative rumors who, through online forums and social networks, disseminated knowingly false information about terrorist acts allegedly committed in Belarus. Later, ten more rumors were established. Earlier it was reported that up to five years of imprisonment is threatened for disseminating false information about the attack.
Investigation
April 11
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko instructed the Prosecutor General to create an investigation team and strengthen it with officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB, Deputy Prosecutor General Andrei Shved was appointed head of the group. According to A. Lukashenko, the chairman of the State Security Committee is personally responsible for the investigation of the attack.
April 12th
It was planned that in April 12, explosive specialists from Great Britain, Israel and Russia, who have experience in investigating such cases, will arrive in the Belarusian capital. Also in the morning of this day, two experts of the FSB of the Russian Federation arrived in Minsk to assist in the investigation of the terrorist attack and immediately began work in the subway.
According to the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, a middle-aged man in a blue hat arranged a terrorist attack. Orientation to him was sent to all police departments.
At 16:00, during a briefing, the KGB chairman Vadim Zaitsev stated that he did not exclude the version of the suspect’s accomplices; the version of the mercenaries was not excluded either.
April 13th
On the night of April 12–13, employees of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus procedurally detained the first suspects in the case. Deputy General Prosecutor Andrei Shved said that "these are two people, they are under investigation, the first interrogations with the participation of lawyers have been carried out and the first evidence has been obtained." Both detained citizens of Belarus.
At 13 o’clock, Alexander Lukashenko announced the discovery of the terrorist attack in the Minsk metro and the detention of its performers.
The detainees confessed not only to commit a terrorist act in the Minsk metro, but to their conscience and the attacks committed on Independence Day and even earlier in Vitebsk.
14th of April
Two more people were detained on suspicion of carrying out a terrorist attack in the Minsk metro. According to the information of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the total number of detainees involved in the terrorist attack is five. It was later reported that they “are the unapproachable citizens of Belarus at the age of 30”.
At a press conference on April 14, the Prosecutor General’s Office showed video materials to journalists indicating the suspected terrorist attack. The material shown to reporters is a cut from surveillance cameras at the Kupalovskaya and Oktyabrskaya stations. The available filming was commented on by Deputy Attorney General Andrei Shved.
April 15th
On the morning of April 15, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus published information that the alleged offender found himself using the phone call he made to his girlfriend before activating the bomb. According to information in the article, law enforcement officers made a request to mobile operators to find out from which numbers there were calls at about six in the evening at the station. m. "October".
April 16th
Alexander Lukashenko said that during the investigation of the terrorist attack, people were detained for whose negligence there was a tragedy.
April 17th
According to the head of the KGB Information and Public Relations Center, Alexander Antonovich, on the ONT television channel, the main suspect studied the route and timing of train movements, determined where to put the explosive device, and also studied the location of metro security facilities. According to the representative of the KGB, they have already found a remote device with which the terrorist activated the explosives.
The perpetrators of the attack
Mitka and Vlad were best friends at school, studied in the same class. They almost did not communicate with other guys. Mitka was always strange and reserved, studied poorly at school. He had a solid five only in chemistry. Here he was second to none. At first he made firecrackers, then he began to make explosive packets, very powerful. Well, Vlad always helped him in everything, was his only friend.
After graduating from school, Kovalev and Konovalov entered vocational school. Upon receiving a locksmith diploma, friends got a job at the Vitebsk factory of tractor spare parts. According to Life News, there they met the third detainee on suspicion of explosion, 28-year-old locksmith Medvedev
The law enforcement authorities of Vitebsk confirmed the presence of a laboratory in the basement of the five-story building where the family of Konovalov and Kovalev lived
During a search in the basement of one of the houses along Repin 1st lane, a laboratory was discovered where Konovalov was collecting explosives. In addition to explosives in the basement found two hundred bearings, pieces of metal and fittings, which the mechanics brought from the factory.
A few months before the tragedy, Konovalov and Kovalev moved to live in Minsk.
