Vietnamese students activate safety in St. Petersburg

April 4, 2017 06:32

(Baonghean.vn) -No Vietnamese students were injured in the explosion at a metro station in St. Petersburg, but international students will limit going out for the time being.

"On April 3, I got out of school early. My friends and I were planning to go to the city center to play on the M2 route. But we hesitated and decided to change our plans. A while later, we received bad news about the M2 route. We were all extremely confused."

The explosion in the St Petersburg metro system occurred at 14:40 on a train running from Sennaya Square station to Technological University station, killing 10 people and injuring 47 others (data at 18:05 MSK)

Van Anh said that the blue line (M2) passes through many universities, where many Vietnamese students study such as: University of Technology, University of Mechanics and Optics, University of Economics and Management, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, College of Economics. In addition, the line also passes through the Aprasil market area, where many Vietnamese people work and live. "When the explosion happened, I was very worried, because I didn't know if there were any students or Vietnamese people on that train or not."

The metro system in St. Petersburg began construction on November 15, 1955. The metro here ranks 4th in the world (after Moscow, Paris, London) in terms of passenger turnover. Every day, more than 2 million people use this public transport. St. Petersburg's metro transports more than 742 million passengers/year, with the deepest system in the world, the deepest station is up to 100m. The system has 5 metro lines. Rush hours are from 07:00-09:00, 14:00-15:00, 17:00-19:00

Sharing the same fear as Van Anh, international student Nguyen Trong Hien (master's degree at the University of Mechanics and Optics) said: "I often go to school on this M2 route. Today, after school, I just returned to my room to rest when I read the bad news. I feel like I just escaped "death".

Hien also added that the M2 route is the route with the highest traffic intensity and passenger volume in St. Petersburg, and is the route with the most transfer stations. The explosion occurred in a train car at the "Sennaya Square" station. This is a transfer station for 3 routes (M2, M4, M5). The station is located in the city center, with more than 54,000 people passing through this station every day.

Scene of the explosion. Photo: Kp

Student Pham Tran Hong Tham (University of Economics and Management) shared: "When the explosion happened, luckily we were in class. When hearing the news, all local and foreign students were scared and confused. The atmosphere in the classroom suddenly became gloomy. Everyone was worried about whether their relatives or friends were on that trip or not. After class, we called a taxi to go home. We did not dare to use public transport."

The injured were quickly transported to hospital. Photo: Reuters

In the current unstable situation, all Vietnamese students in St. Petersburg remind each other to be careful, if there is nothing important, limit going out.

The City Government has decided to exempt public transport from charges. Some taxi companies such as Uber taxi also do not charge in the central area.

St. Petersburg Governor Georgei Sergei announced the closure of the entire metro system and from April 4 St. Petersburg will observe three days of mourning for the victims.

Like other terrorist attacks, immediately after the bomb explosion at the subway in St. Petersburg that killed at least 11 people and injured more than 40, Facebook quickly activated the "Safety Check" safety confirmation feature.

Vietnamese students studying abroad in St. Petersburg or traveling here have used this feature to inform their relatives and friends about their safety. There have been no reports of casualties among the international student community or Vietnamese people in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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