Alwaght- Russian President Vladimir Putin said a bomb blast in a St Petersburg supermarket on Wednesday was an act of terrorism, and that security forces whose lives were threatened by terrorist suspects should shoot to kill if necessary.
Putin made his comment Thursday at an awards ceremony at the Kremlin for troops who took part in Russia's Syria campaign but did not offer any details. He also said another terrorist attack had been thwarted in St. Petersburg but did not elaborate.
"You know that yesterday in St Petersburg a terrorist act was carried out," Putin told the audience, referring to the explosion that injured 13 shoppers in a branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into Wednesday evening's blast, which they said was caused by a homemade bomb packed with pieces of metal.
Russian media reports said the bomb was hidden in a locker where shoppers leave their belongings.
Putin has portrayed Russia's operation in Syria as a pre-emptive strike against terrorism at home. He said the threat of attacks at home would have been much worse if Russia had not intervened in Syria.
"What would have happened if those thousands (of terrorists) that I have just spoken about, hundreds of them had come back to us, trained and armed," he said in comments to Russian news agencies.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not say what led authorities to declare the attack an act of terrorism, but he said the fact that the bomb was rigged with shrapnel proved it "was a terrorist attack anyway."
In April, a suicide terrorist attack in St. Petersburg's subway left 16 people dead and wounded more than 50.
