St. Petersburg subway bombing reveals terror vulnerability
The St. Petersburg subway bombing demonstrated the terror risks facing subway stations because of their open access and large crowds, but experts said Monday that Russian transportation security has been less stringent than in the U.S.
A bomb with about 2.2 pounds of explosives detonated in a subway car at the Tekhnologichesky Institut station, killing 11 people and injuring dozens, according to the Interfax news agency. A second explosive device rigged with shrapnel was found and defused at the Vosstaniya Square station.
Authorities are searching for two suspects, according to Interfax.
Subways have increasingly become the target of terror bombings because of the number of entrances and the volume of passengers, according to security experts.
“The scariest part is that it’s no longer instructions from al-Qaeda. Nowadays, it’s the guy who’s practicing radical terrorism in his living room,” John Poncy, a security expert who is CEO of The Densus Group and a former Army soldier, told USA TODAY. “I just think it’s a matter of time — I hate to say this — before it hits a subway system in the United States.”
Read more:
Mourning, alarm in Russia after deadly blast in St. Petersburg
Subway attacks: Terrorists have targeted rail before
Europe has been defending against subway bombings for years:
• Suicide bombers attacked the Brussels airport and a nearby subway station in March 2016, killing 32 others and injuring dozens.
• In Paris in November 2015, suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people and injured hundreds at a concert hall, a stadium, restaurants and bars.
• In July 2005, suicide bombers killed 52 people in the London Underground and on a double-decker bus.
Anthony Roman, a global risk-management expert and president of Roman & Assoc. in Lynbrook, N.Y., told USA TODAY that his staffers, formerly military or Justice Department investigators, found Russian transportation security below par for the Sochi Olympics.
“Security was felt to be far below U.S. standards, and wholly inadequate,” Roman said.
In general, subways and other train systems are difficult to protect from terrorists because of the large number of entries and large number of people using the transportation. But Roman said New York City illustrates how multi-layer security can be organized with uniformed police, plain-clothes officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, electronic and video surveillance— and significant patrols at high-value targets such as Penn Station and Grand Central Station.
“These multi-layers of security make it increasingly difficult to effectively and regularly commit acts of terror. Not impossible,” Roman said.
France’s interior minister, Matthias Fekl, redeployed security Monday in public transport around Paris. “Amid an extremely high terrorism threat, the government continues to take measures to protect the French people,” the ministry said in a statement.
In the U.S., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Administration is receiving periodic updates from federal law enforcement but hasn’t changed the already “elevated” security level. The agency encouraged passengers to report suspicious packages or activity.
“At this time, there is no specific or credible threat to Metro, and there has been no announced change in Metro’s security posture, which remains elevated,” spokesman Ron Holzer said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and transit agencies in Boston, Chicago, New York didn’t respond to questions about whether security was tightened in the U.S.
Poncy expects proposals to reduce the vulnerabilities of subway stations. Metal detectors are now common at airports and sporting events, and the inconvenience of hindering subway riders might be overcome by security concerns, he said.
“It’s an intricately woven target that permeates every part of a London or a New York, or any of the cities with a large subway system,” Poncy said. “If you want to make an impact, you set it to go off when it gets to Grand Central Station.”
Contributing: The Associated Press