Experts, firefighters and police officers examine a site of a trolleybus explosion in Volgograd, Russia Monday, Dec. 30, 2013 (Photo: AP)
Blasts in the Russian city of Volgograd have been classified as "acts of terror", investigators said on Monday.
Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Russian news agencies.
At least 15 people were killed on Monday when an explosion ripped through a trolleybus in the second deadly blast in the Russian city of Volgograd in two days, Russia Today TV network reported.
A mourning period of five days has been declared in the Volgograd region.
Originally slated for Wednesday, commemoration for the victims of the latest two bombings will begin Wednesday and run through till Friday, Russia Today reported.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered that families of victims receive a million rubles each ($ 30,000).
Others will be compensated with 200,000 to 400,000 ($6000 to $8000) rubles depending on the injuries they have sustained.
The investigative committee determined a male suicide bomber carried out the attack.
"It is now possible to preliminarily say that the explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber -- a man whose body fragments have been collected and sent for genetic testing," the committee said in a statement.
"An explosion equal in strength to 4 kilograms of TNT took place in the attack," the committee said.
31 were also injured in the blast with 12 in critical condition, Russia Today reported.
“It’s a major tragedy, the trolleybus was ripped to shreds; only the nose was left relatively intact. Conditionally speaking, the roof became the cupola of the blast,” Volgograd mayor’s spokesperson Mikhail Serenko told the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
The explosion came a day after a suicide bomber killed at least 17 people in the main railway station of the southern Russian city 40 days before Russia is to hold the Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
The investigative committee "has confirmed the connection between the Sunday and Monday bombings," Markin told Russia news agencies.
In October, a female suicide bomber blew herself up on a city bus in Volgograd, killing six people and injuring about 30.
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