Trolley bus blast kills at least 10 in Russia's Volgograd

MOSCOW, Dec. 30 -- At least ten people were killed and 28 others injured in a trolley bus blast in Russia's southern Volgograd on Monday, authorities said.

The blast, the second in two days, occurred at 8:25 a.m. Moscow time (0425 GMT), when commuters were on their way to work or school. Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova, who is in the city, said three people hospitalized were in serious condition.

Xinhua reporters at the scene said the bus was badly damaged, and the police have cordoned off the site. Ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and vehicles of the Emergency Situations Ministry were working at the scene.

President Vladimir Putin has been updated with the deadly blast, and a terrorist investigation has been underway.

Russian Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said the fresh explosion could also be a terror attack, resembling the Sunday one and another in October that left seven people dead.

A suicide bomber ripped a railway station in Volgograd on Sunday, killing 17 people and injuring 45 others.

The Emergency Situations Ministry has sent a plane with medical modules onboard to treat the victims of the new explosion.

Families of those who were killed in the blasts will receive a million rubles (30,580 U.S. dollars) each in compensation, and people hurt in the attacks will get 200,000 to 400,000 rubles (6,100 to 12,200 dollars), Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov said Monday.