Global General

Suicide bombers kill at least 37 in Moscow subway

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-29 21:57

MOSCOW - Two female suicide bombers killed at least 37 people on packed Moscow subway trains on Monday and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that "terrorists will be destroyed."

Suicide bombers kill at least 37 in Moscow subway

An image from Lifenews.ru shows a damaged coach after a bomb explosion at Lubyanka metro station in Moscow March 29, 2010. [Agencies]

Witnesses described morning rush-hour panic at two central Moscow stations, with commuters falling over each other in dense smoke and dust as they tried to escape the worst attack on the Russian capital in six years. Sixty-five others were injured.

Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said the bombs were filled with bolts and iron rods. He linked the attacks to the North Caucasus, where Moscow faces a growing threat from Islamist insurgents who have threatened to hit Russian cities and economic targets.

Officials said the death toll could rise, with about 30 people badly injured.

"A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed," Putin said, before breaking off a visit to Siberia to handle the aftermath of the attack.

"I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed," Putin told emergency officials.

The first blast tore through the second carriage of a subway train just before 8 a.m. as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.

Second blast

About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second or third carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury subway station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people, an emergencies ministry spokeswoman said by telephone.

"It was very scary. I saw a dead body," said Valentin Popov, a 19-year-old student traveling on a train to the Park Kultury station, told Reuters. "Everyone was screaming. There was a stampede at the doors. I saw one woman holding a child and pleading with people to let her through, but it was impossible."

Reuters photographers saw body bags being brought out of both stations.

The Kremlin had declared victory in its battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow; but violence has intensified in the neighboring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia, where Islamist militancy overlaps with clan rivalries and criminal rings amid deep poverty.

The chief of the FSB told President Dmitry Medvedev: "Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found...and according to initial data, these persons are linked to the North Caucasus."

Eye witnesses spoke of panic after the blasts, which ripped through stations just a few kilometers from the Kremlin.

"I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body," an unidentified man who was on a train at Park Kultury told RIA news agency.