Russia metro blast toll climbs to 14

Saint Petersburg : The death toll from an bombing on a metro train in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg rose to 14 Tuesday, as Kyrgyzstan said a suicide bomber from the Central Asian country had staged the attack.

The Russian imperial capital was beginning the first of three days of mourning and Russian tricolour flags flew at half mast throughout the city to honour the dead.

Flowers and candles piled up at an impromptu memorial outside the metro station hit by the attack as authorities beefed up security on the city's busy underground transport system.

Commuters began their daily trip to work under an anxious cloud after Monday's bombing that closed down the entire metro system that is seen as the lifeblood of the city.

"Everyone in the metro can only think of this," said 45-year-old Svetlana Golubeva as she entered the underground.

Throughout the city, there was a sense of shock that terror could strike their city that had seemed far from being a target -- unlike Paris, Berlin or London.

Even threats to Moscow "seemed far away from us," said Dmitry Leonov as he picked his way through the candles and flower tributes lining the gates of the station.

"Now we're all under threat," he said.