Russian Kickboxing Champion Passes In St. Petersburg Bombing
Earlier this week (Mon. April 3, 2017) a bomb detonated inside of a train in between the two major stations of Tekhnologichesky Institut and Sennaya Ploshchad, right in the center of St. Petersburg. It was Russia’s worst terror attack in years.
Following the explosion the train continued on to the Sennaya Train Station where citizens were able to help victims of the explosion inside the train. Soon after this incident another bomb was found aboard a separate train at the Ploshchad Vosstania station, but was soon disarmed by Russian authorities.
49 citizens suffered injuries, four of those remain in critical condition, while 14 were killed. Amongst the deceased was St. Petersburg local kickboxing champion Denis Petrov who was 25-years-old at the time of his death.
Petrov was a army hand-to-hand combat champion as well as a local kickboxing champion. A colleague of Petrov, Alena, told Crime Russia (via Bloody Elbow) that her friend had a bright future ahead of him before his passing:
“He went to the training, but he did not get there,” said Alena. “He was a very good man, he was very fond of children, they happily visited training. There are very little athletes like him. He had a great future.”
22-year-old Central Asian, Akbarjon Djalilov, was identified as the man behind the attacks after DNA evidence found on the defused bomb at Ploshchad Vosstania was utilized by the Russian Investigative Committee.
Russian president Vladimir Putin had this to say regarding the attacks:
“We see that the situation unfortunately is not improving and the best proof of that is the recent events in St. Petersburg,” Putin said. “Each of our nations is a potential target for terrorist attacks.”
