Moscow car bombing suspect arrested at Turkish beach resort

Security forces detain a Russian man in Bodrum

A Russian suspected of carrying out a car bomb attack in Moscow was arrested by Turkish authorities in Bodrum on Wednesday. Demiroren News Agency / AFP

Turkish security forces have arrested a man suspected of carrying out a car bomb attack in Moscow on Wednesday, after he fled Russia to a Turkish resort city.

Evgenii Serebriakov was caught by police after catching a plane from the Russian capital to the Aegean beach resort city of Bodrum in south-west Turkey, following an alert from Russian authorities, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

“Today, at 10.30, our Interpol/Europol Department Headquarters was called by the Russian Interpol Unit officials and informed that a person named Evgenii Serebriakov, a Russian national, carried out a terrorist attack with a car bomb in Moscow, 2 people were injured as a result of the attack, and the person came to our country by Moscow-Bodrum plane,” the statement said.

The man is accused of carrying out a car bomb attack that injured two people in Moscow on Wednesday.

He was not recognised at Turkish border control because he was not listed in Interpol’s International Wanted Persons Database records, but was later tracked down by security services and arrested, Mr Yerlikaya said.

A video published by Turkey’s Interior Ministry showed plainclothes police officers surrounding a white car and handcuffing the suspect.

Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), told the SHOT Telegram channel that the suspect had fled to Turkey and that the FSB was working to extradite him, Reuters reported.

The bomb went off when a man and woman got inside a Toyota Land Cruiser near a residential building in Moscow on Wednesday morning, causing injuries and damage to five nearby cars, Russian news agency TASS reported.

Russian citizens are able to enter Turkey without a visa for up to 60 days.

Russia has experienced a number of attacks in recent months, including an assault at a concert hall in March that left 140 people dead and 300 injured.