Car explosion kills three in Russian city

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A car exploded in Russia's second city of St Petersburg on Tuesday, killing three people and seriously injuring a fourth, the Emergencies Ministry said.

"At 8:55 (5:55 a.m. British time) a car containing a grenade exploded. Three people were killed, including a child aged between 2-1/2 and 3 years old," ministry spokesman Andrei Alyabev said.

The explosion took place around 50 metres from the city's Udelnaya metro station during morning rush hour. The station was not closed after the explosion, Alyabev said.

Russian news agencies quoted the chief of St Petersburg's city police force as saying the explosion was not an act of terrorism.

Russian state television channel Vesti-24 said investigators were treating the blast as murder. It showed pictures of a battered Russian-made car with its doors hanging off their hinges.

The dead were members of the same family and the seriously injured man was a taxi driver, Russian news agencies reported. The driver is in hospital in a serious condition, they said.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Charles Dick)