Moscow Metro hit by deadly suicide bombings
Past suicide bombings there have been blamed on Islamist rebels fighting for independence in the troubled North Caucasus region of Chechnya.
via BBC
At least 35 people have been killed after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow Metro trains in the morning rush hour, officials say.
Twenty-three died in the first blast at 0756 (0356 GMT) as a train stood at the central Lubyanka station, beneath the offices of the FSB intelligence agency.
About 40 minutes later, a second explosion ripped through a train at Park Kultury, leaving another 12 dead.
No-one has said they carried out the worst attack in the capital since 2004.
We can assume that belts with explosive devices were attached to their bodies
Yuri Syomin
Moscow Chief Prosecutor |
But the BBC’s Richard Galpin in the Russian capital says past suicide bombings there have been blamed on Islamist rebels fighting for independence in the troubled North Caucasus region of Chechnya.
In February, Chechen rebel president Doku Umarov warned that “the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia… the war is coming to their cities”.
Moscow’s metro is one of the busiest subways in the world, carrying some 5.5m passengers a day.
‘No fire’
Emergency services ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said the first explosion tore through the second carriage of a train as it stood at Lubyanka at the peak of the rush hour.
Moscow’s Metro is one of the busiest in the world, with millions of passengers
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The station, on both the busy Sokolnicheskaya and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines, is close to the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
The BBC Russian Service’s Yuri Maloverian at Lubyanka station says there are still ambulances on the scene although all the wounded have been transported to local hospitals.
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