Moscow metro bomb blasts kill 40 people
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Moscow, March 29, IRNA -- 40 people were killed and 37 injured after two bomb blasts ripped through two packed metro stations in Moscow Monday.
IRNA reporter in Moscow said that the explosions happened within 40 minutes of each other in the morning rush hour.
The first tore through the second carriage of a train as it stood at the Lubyanka station. An hour later at the Park Kultury station a second blast wrecked the second carriage of a train.
“Two female terrorist suicide bombers carried out these bombings. I cannot say exactly if they were on the platform or on the trains but the explosions happened as the trains approached the platforms and were timed to cause the maximum number of casualties,” Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov said.
As the emergency services continued their grim task no group has claimed responsibility.
The first explosion at the Lublyanka station happened close to Russia’s main domestic security service, the FSB.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is currently visiting Siberia, is “receiving detailed information from security agencies and social services about the work on helping the victims”, a spokesman said.
Moscow’s metro is one of the busiest subways in the world, carrying some 5.5m passengers a day.
There was a major attack on the Moscow Metro in February 2004, when at least 39 people were killed by a bomb on a packed train as it approached the Paveletskaya Metro station.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at an emergency meeting: "Obviously, we have not done enough."
"Security must be reinforced," Medvedev said.
"We must consider this problem on a national scale, rather than focus on particular means of transportation or particular cities."
End News / IRNA / News Code 1028342
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