Eleven people were killed and about 100 were injured in a metro blast in the Belarussian capital Minsk today, President Alexander Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
The state news agency BelTA said the blast occurred at 5.55pm local time at the metro station Oktyabrskaya on a square of the same name about 100 metres from the administration building of Mr Lukashenko.
There was no official word as to whether the blast had been caused by a bomb or an accident. However, Mr Lukashenko later said the explosion was aimed at undermining peace and stability in the country.
In televised remarks during a meeting with key ministers, he linked Monday's explosion to a 2008 bomb at a rock concert that wounded about 50 people.
"These are perhaps links in a single chain. We must find out who gained by undermining peace and stability in the country, who stands behind this," he said. Saying those guilty had to be found and punished, he added: "I do not rule out that this [the blast] was a gift from abroad."
Mr Lukashenko is at odds with Western governments which have imposed a travel ban on him and his close associates after a police crackdown on an opposition rally on December 19th.
Scores of opposition activists were arrested at that rally, which protested against his re-election for a fourth term.
If the explosion was an act of deliberate violence it would be extremely unusual for Belarus, a tightly policed ex-Soviet republic of 10 million people that shares borders with EU members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania and with Russia and Ukraine.
In July 2008, a home-made bomb sprayed nuts and bolts into a crowd attending an open air concert in Minsk attended by Mr Lukashenko, wounding about 50 people.
Political tension has been high in Belarus since an election on December 19th gave Mr Lukashenko a fourth term in power, to the dismay of the opposition and the West which denounced the vote as fraudulent.
A police crackdown on an opposition rally against the December vote has led to sanctions by the West, including a travel ban on Mr Lukashenko and his closest associates.
Reuters