The city of Volgograd, Russia, has laid to rest a police officer who tried to protect commuters as a suicide bomber blew herself up in the main train station on Dec. 29.
Dmitry Makovkin, 29, was identified in Russian media as the policeman who was seen in security camera footage trying to stop the bomber from setting off her explosive device as she entered the central railway station.
“Dmitry Makovkin approached her and at that movement she suddenly started to rush inside. Dmitry crossed her path and it seems he covered her with his body. That’s when she blew herself up,” Russia Today reported, citing the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
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Authorities have reportedly said the death toll could have been much higher had Makovkin not stopped the bomber at a security checkpoint near the station’s main entrance.
Makovkin, who had only became a transport police officer in August after five years as a policeman, was reportedly killed instantly.
His coffin was marched through the city on Thursday. According to BBC, he was “buried with full military honours.”
He was one of the 34 people killed in double suicide bombings in Volgograd this week, including the bombers.
A second bomber blew up a trolleybus on Monday, less than 24 hours after the train station bombing.
The train station bomber has been identified as 26-year-old Oksana Aslanova, while the trolleybus bomber has reportedly been identified as 32-year-old former paramedic Pavel Pechyonkin.
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At least two other funerals have been held for victims.
Russian police have arrested more than 700 people in an investigation into the bombings.
Some Russian experts have speculated the bombings were meant to rattle nerves ahead of the Olympic Winter Games, which get underway in Sochi on Feb. 7.
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Volgograd is a key transport city in southern Russia and is expected to be a travel hub when the Winter Games are on.
Sochi is 990* kilometres southwest of Volgograd.
No group has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks, but investigators believe they could be connected to terrorist groups in the volatile North Caucasus region.
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With files from The Associated Press
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated Sochi is 650 kilometres from Volgograd. The distance between the two stories is approximately 990 kilometres
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