Investigators stated on 3 April 2017 that they believed the attack was a suicide bombing and identified a Central Asian as the suspected perpetrator. Some reports identified the suspect as Maxim Arishev, a 22-year-old immigrant from Kazakhstan, while others stated the suspect was a 23-year-old native of Kyrgyzstan with Russian citizenship with links to international militant groups. The next day, the suspected perpetrator was named as Akbarzhan Jalilov, a Russian citizen born in Kyrgyzstan. It was the first terrorist attack in the history of the Saint Petersburg Metro system.