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A scene from the explosion in a metro station in St Petersburg, Russia, yesterday

ST PETERSBURG. — At least 10 people are feared dead and dozens wounded in a blast in the metro system of Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city, according to local authorities.

Ambulances and fire engines descended on the central Sennaya Ploshchad metro station after the explosion yesterday.

Russian media initially reported that there were two blasts, but officials said that there was only one blast, which happened in a train carriage between two stations on a busy line.

Another explosive device was later found at a different station in central St Petersburg and made safe, the country’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.

“We don’t know the exact number of those killed, but it is about 10 people,” Andrei Kibitov, a spokesman for the Saint Petersburg governor, said.

He added that about 50 people were wounded, two of which were undergoing emergency surgery.

A huge hole was blasted in the side of a carriage with metal wreckage strewn across the platform. Passengers were seen hammering at the windows of one closed carriage.

Social media users also posted photographs and video from the scene showing people lying on the floor and a train with a mangled door nearby.

A scene from the explosion in a metro station in St Petersburg, Russia, yesterday

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in St Petersburg to attend an economic forum, said the government was considering all possible causes for the blasts.

“I have already spoken to the head of our special services, they are working to ascertain the cause (of the blasts),” Putin, at a meeting with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, said.

“The causes are not clear, it’s too early. We will look at all possible causes, terrorism as well as common crime,” he added.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from the capital, Moscow, said authorities had closed all of the city’s metro stations as a precaution.

The Moscow metro also said it was tightening security following the blasts in St Petersburg.

Russia’s public transportation systems have been targeted by attacks in the past.

At least 38 people were killed in 2010 when two female suicide bombers detonated bombs on packed Moscow metro trains.

A suicide raid on the capital’s Domodedovo airport that was claimed by fighters from the North Caucasus killed 37 people in January 2011.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland expressed condolences to Russians over the deadly explosion in St Petersburg metro yesterday.

“I am shocked and saddened by the news of deadly blasts in St Petersburg. I extend my sincere condolences to our member state Russia,” Jagland wrote on his Twitter page.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders offered condolences to the families of the victims. “I express my condolences to the families of the victims and I think of all the wounded in the explosion in St Petersburg,” he wrote on Twitter.

Foreign ministers of 28 EU member-states at the meeting of the Council of the European Union are following the news, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.

“Following the news coming from Saint Petersburg, together with all EU foreign ministers. Our thoughts are with all people of Russia,” she wrote on her Twitter page.

The United States’ embassy in Russia conveyed its condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the St Petersburg metro blast, the embassy’s spokesperson Maria Olson said.

“Shocked and saddened by explosions in StPete and the resulting deaths and injuries. Our hearts go out to victims and families,” she wrote on Twitter.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has expressed his condolences to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“I also want to express my condolences to you and convey my condolences to the relatives (of those killed and injured in the metro blast), to St Petersburg residents, who are reacting very painfully and acutely to such things,” the Belarusian president said at the beginning of a meeting with Russian President Putin. — Al Jazeera/Tass/News agencies.