Preliminary data suggests that a female suicide bomber conducted the attack on the bus in Volgograd, central Russia, killing six people and injuring 32, RT reported the Russian Investigative Committee.

Preliminary data suggests that a female suicide bomber conducted the attack on the bus in Volgograd, central Russia, killing six people and injuring 32, RT reported the Russian Investigative Committee.

A terrorist act has been confirmed by the National Anti-terrorist Committee.

“Today at 2:05pm Moscow time [10:05 GMT] in Volgograd inside a bus, as a result of an unknown explosive device going off, a blast happened, leading to casualties,” a national Anti-terrorist Committee representative said in the statement.

The Investigative Committee has identified the woman who was the suicide bomber: it's allegedly Naida Akhiyalova, from Dagestan.

Also, a grenade has been found under the vehicle and it's now being checked whether the explosive is live, a source in the security forces now at the scene told RIA Novosti.

Forty passengers were on the bus. Seven of them are in critical condition. A 20-month-old toddler is among those injured. His state is assessed as moderately severe.

Russia’s Health Ministry indicated that most of the victims in the explosion sustained mine explosive-type wounds, caused by the bus’s paneling and the shattered glass.

The preliminary information indicates that “the female suicide bomber was the wife of a militant leader,” an Investigative Committee representative told the media.

Local police have ordered all movement of minivan buses to be halted. The scene remains cordoned off. The road police and investigators aren’t allowing people to access the area, explaining that the bus may go off again, and the radius of damage may rise to two kilometers.

“Control headquarters is coordinating fast response services, as well as security forces, to prevent more explosions from happening,” he said. 

Emergency services are working at the scene, which is cordoned off. 

Earlier, the malfunction of gas equipment inside the bus was listed as one of the possible causes of the blast. However, investigators soon indicated a terrorist act was the preliminary cause.

Russia’s Emergency Ministry is ready to send a plane to Volgograd to evacuate the injured to Moscow, according to the official representative of the  Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius. 

Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd region located in the South of Russia.

At the present time more than 1 million people live in the city.