Ground Report

A Russian man blew himself yesterday when he was asked for ticket by the train inspectors. The inspectors thought they saw a hand grenade in the man’s pocket and asked him to get off the commuter train at Asha station, in Chelyabinsk in the South Urals region. He refused and instead demanded that the train go to Vladivostok, thousands of kilometres away on Russia’s Pacific coast, said Liana Ergasheva of the local prosecutor’s office.Passengers int the train were evacuated immediately and negotiations with the police had started before Mikhail Ershov, 43, triggered the explosion by himself, blasting out also the windows of the train carriage.