The main suspect in a suicide bombing on the St Petersburg metro that killed 14 people had rented an apartment in the city a month before the blast.
Security officials raided the apartment on Tuesday and a witness who was present during the search said she saw belongings packed into black bags and cardboard boxes, and household containers with an unidentified powder inside.
The Investigative Committee, the state body leading the investigation, said footage from security cameras near the same building showed the suspect, Akbarzhon Jalilov, leaving carrying a bag and a rucksack.
Jalilov was born in 1995 in Kyrgyzstan and held a Russian passport and had rented the rented apartment in north-eastern St Petersburg when he returned from a trip to his home city of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan.
Two Kyrgyz government sources said Jalilov made the trip in February, leaving in early March on a flight to Moscow.
Osh is part of the Fergana Valley, a fertile strip of land that straddles Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and is mainly populated by ethnic Uzbeks. It has a tradition of Islamist radicalism and hundreds of people have set out from the area to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Jalilov had previously lived in St Petersburg for several years and the apartment Jalilov rented is about 20km from the site of the explosion.
Neighbours at the building said Jalilov had first moved into apartment 109 around a month ago.
"The apartment was always silent," said a resident of the same staircase, who gave her name as Margarita.
"When the owner let (the apartment) I asked her and she said he was a decent guy and that I should call her if he makes noise."
"But I never heard ... any music playing. Maybe he turned on the TV once."
Jalilov's parents, who say they had not seen their son for a while, were due to fly into St Petersburg on Wednesday and a witness at Pulkovo airport reported heavy security.
A middle-aged man and woman were escorted away after the flight arrived.
Authorities refused to confirm that the couple were Jalilov's parents but the woman, in response to a Russian TV reporter's question, said she did not believe her son was the bomber.
Six people of central Asian origin have been held on suspicion of recruiting for radical Islamist groups, but there is no proof linking the detainees to the metro bombing, Russian investigators said.
Authorities have also beefed up security across major cities, with sniffer dogs and bag checks at several metro stations in Moscow.
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