You're reading: Prosecutor: Dnipropetrovsk tram incident nothing to do with April blasts

DNIPROPETROVSK - The incident on a Dnipropetrovsk tram has nothing to do with the four explosions which rocked the city on April 27, regional prosecutor Natalia Marchuk said.

"I hereby declare under my responsibility that this is not an explosion, it was an ignition of gunpowder, this is not an terrorist attack. But there will be a criminal inquiry because the rules for hazardous substances’ transportation were violated and physical injuries were caused," she told reporters at the scene on Monday.

It was reported that on April 27, 2012, four explosions occurred in a one-hour span in Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 31 people, including 10 teenagers, 26 victims were hospitalized. One victim, a woman, remains in the hospital. All the explosive devices were planted in concrete trash containers.

SBU investigators are probing the criminal case opened by prosecutors on terror charges.

On May 31, senior officials in the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that two suspects had been arrested for allegedly demanding $4.5 million, otherwise they threatened to continue the explosions. It emerged on June 1 that four people were arrested. All of them have been remanded in custody by the court while the investigation is ongoing.

It was found later that one of them, Sukachov, is a senior political science professor at the National University of Dnipropetrovsk, and the second one, Vitaly Fedoriak, is an assistant professor of political science.