AP

AFP
Belarus authorities have arrested a man suspecting of planting the bomb on the Minsk metro that killed 12 people in the worst attack in its post-Soviet history.
Authorities have speculated that extremists or a lone psychopath may be behind the attack but have so far failed to offer conclusions two days after an attack that stunned a country completely unaccustomed to a strike on this scale.
Twelve people were killed and 200 injured in the attack, which was caused by a bomb apparently set off by remote control placed in a bag at a metro station close to the headquarters of autocratic president Alexander Lukashenko.
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Deputy prosecutor Andrei Shved said police had arrested two suspects, including a man suspected of planting the bomb at the station.
Shved did not make clear when the men were arrested or if their arrest came after that of three men detained a day earlier.
"The first confessions have been obtained," he said, quoted by the Interfax-Zapad news agency.
"With a great deal of probability we can assume that one of the detained is the perpetrator," Shved added, pointing to video evidence from the Oktyabrskaya station of the Minsk metro where the bomb went off.
"On the video footage it is clearly visible how the suspect gets off a train at Oktyabrskaya, stands on the platform, leaves a bag behind on a bench and leaves, fiddling with something in his pocket.
"After that, the explosion went off."
A day earlier, the authorities released a picture of a man the KGB said was of "non-Slavic appearance" and was a key suspect. But it was not clear if he was one of those arrested.
Belarus KGB chief Vadim Zaitsev denied speculation that the bomb appeared to have been an amateur operation, saying it contained a large amount of metallic objects aimed at causing destruction.
In a sign of the authorities' uncertainty about the motives for the blast, Zaitsev said three versions were being examined - a bid to destabilise the country, a plot by extreme youth groups and an action by a lone psychopath.