Support The Moscow Times!

Russian Bomb Alerts Result in Spate of Evacuations

Kursky railway station in Moscow

Bomb alerts in Moscow and other major Russian cities have led to a series of evacuations over the past week — transport hubs, hotels and shopping centers were affected. However, no explosives have been found at any of the evacuated sites, and no one was injured.

About 400 people were evacuated from Moscow's Kursky Station on Monday morning after an anonymous bomb alert, the TASS agency reported, citing an unidentified security source.

The afternoon saw another 200 forced to vacate the capital's Yaroslavsky Station, following another anonymous message. No incendiary devices were discovered in either case, Russian media reported.

The Moscow evacuations came on the heels of similar instances at the Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, the largest city in the Urals, last Tuesday, the Moscow Kosmos Hotel on Saturday — where about a thousand visitors were affected — and the Voroshilov shopping center in the southern city of Volgograd, on Sunday. There were no reported casualties.

Russia’s security services have been placed on high alert following the terror attacks in Paris on Friday which left nearly 130 people dead.

“Our state's security organs are taking the appropriate measures to ensure the security of citizens and their protection against terrorism,” Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement, the AFP news agency reported Saturday.

Read more