The time bomb planted under a seat in the head railroad car detonated when it stopped at the station,[2][3] killing the immediate perpetrator Oktay Gurbanov.
The bomb (a remote controlled gelatine explosive, according to Azeri intelligence authorities) detonated at 8:30 a.m. local time when the train, having departed from the 28 May station, was 500 m away from the Ganjlik railway platform.
[3] During the investigation, Armenian intelligence officers, accused of involvement in the series of metro bombings in Baku as well as on Azerbaijani trains operating both in Azerbaijan and Russia, were taken into custody in Moscow.
[7] The Russian citizens Kamo Fyodorovich Saakov, an ethnic Armenian, his wife Irina Alexandrovna Saakova and Anatoly Anatolyevich Ilchuk were arrested in July 1994, charged with preparations of the attacks.
On 29 November 1997, the Russian law enforcement bodies extradited to Azerbaijan the 30-year-old Lezghin Azer Aslanov, who was charged with planting a bomb in the second attack.