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The main suspect in a suicide bombing on the St Petersburg metro that killed 14 people had rented an apartment in the city a month before the blast, neighbors and a building maintenance worker told Reuters on Wednesday.
A day after Monday's attack, security officials raided the apartment and ordered other residents to leave -- a precaution often undertaken when police believe there may be explosives or bomb-making equipment inside.
A witness who was present during the search, and who did not want to be identified, told Reuters she saw belongings packed into black bags and cardboard boxes, and household containers with an unidentified powder inside.
The Investigative Committee, the state body leading the investigation, said footage from security cameras near the same building showed the suspect, Akbarzhon Jalilov, leaving home carrying a bag and a rucksack. It did not specify if that was on the day of the attack.
Jalilov was born in 1995 in Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim ex-Soviet republic in central Asia, and held a Russian passport.