BOMB OUTRAGE IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 15

BOMB OUTRAGE IN RUSSIA.

ST. PETERSBURG SECRET POLICE CHIEF BLOWN TO PIECES. The chief of the St. Petersburg secret police, Colonel Karpoff, was almost blown to pieces about midnight on Tuesday, December 21, by the explosion of a boiab of explosives, and evidence points to an elaborate plot hatched by a police agent named Veskressensky. It seems that gome days before a young man rented a small flat in a remote street In the Viborg district of St Petersburg. His passport bore the name of Michael Voskressenaky. On Tuesday Voskressensky's "uncle" arrived with a servant It would seem that Voskreseensky was on the staircase, for what purpose Is not known, when a. tremendous explosion occurred inside the flat The flat was wrecked, and Voskressensky's "nncle" (who turned out to be Colonel Karpoff) was killed on the spot, and so terribly mutilated that his, body was almost unidentifiable. The servant was badly wounded In the head. A moment after the explosion Voskressensky, hatleus and costless, rnshed in to the street, bu* n policeman barred bis path. Voskressensky drew a revolver, but was overpowered and arrested. It seems shortly before the arrival at *he flat Voskressensky called in an < ; lectr!clnn to fix a wire ostensibly for a hell, but evfintually sent the man away, snying he would finish the job himself. The presence ot Voskressensky outside the door of the flat nt the time of the explosion Is perhaps explicable by hie having had to press a button tiring an Infernal machine. Examination of the premises shows that an electric wire ran from the door of the flat to beneath a writing table at which Colonel Karpoff was sitting at the time of the explosion. The bomb must have been either on the floor or fastened to the lower side of the table. Both Colonel Karpoff's legs were broken off, and hurled Into the flat below through a cavity made by the explosion. In a valise belonging to Voskressensky was found a padded waistcoat, together with an electrical apparatus such ac Is occasionally used by revolutionaries for exploding bombs carried on their persons; and a quantity of dynamite and chemlca' compounds has been found In the bath-room of the flat.

The chiefs of the secret police frequently arrange to meet agents at private rendezvous, and it is possible that Voekressensky was In Colonel Karpoff's pay, but was simultaneously plotting with revolutionaries. The popular belief, however, seems to bo that the Colonel was in the flat engaged In the manufacture of false evidence.