Russia mourns its dead as bombings toll hits 33

A woman reacts while standing near flowers placed at the site of an explosion on a trolleybus in Volgograd on Tuesday, Dec 31, 2013. Russia beefed up security and mourned its dead on Tuesday as the toll from jarring successive-day suicide strikes in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games rose to 33. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

MOSCOW - Russia beefed up security and mourned its dead on Tuesday as the toll from jarring successive-day suicidestrikes in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games rose to 33.

The southern city of Volgograd planned to bury the first victims of Sunday's bombing of the heartland hub's main railway station that killed 18 people and which officials have provisionally blamed on a young woman from the restive North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

A second suicide attack on a trolleybus packed with students on Monday that investigators pinned on a male assailant has now claimed 15 lives.

The blasts are Russia's deadliest since a suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that was claimed by Islamic insurgents from the North Caucasus killed 37 people in January 2011.

AFP