DATE=9/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / GRENADE (L-O)
NUMBER=2-266221
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: At least sixteen people were injured early
Thursday in Moscow when a man threw a grenade in a
section of the city frequented by prostitutes. Moscow
correspondent Eve Conant reports the bombing is the
latest in a series that has raised concerns over
security in Russian cities.
TEXT: Moscow police said the suspects fled in a car
after throwing a grenade at a group of prostitutes in
the city's Sukharevskaya square.
Several of the women and one man were hospitalized
with shrapnel and blast wounds, mostly to the legs.
Police officials played down suggestions of terrorist
link to the attack, saying it was most likely part of
an organized crime dispute over control of
prostitution. Yevgenny Maximov, head of Moscow's
criminal investigative police, says two people have
been detained.
///ACT MAXIMOV IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER///
He says, "the criminals have been detained and a case
has been opened against them for attempted murder."
Criminal attacks are common in Russia, but a series of
explosions and bomb attacks over the past weeks has
many Russians fearing for their safety.
On Monday, a bomb ripped through a busy food market in
central Russia, killing three people and injuring
several others. Police linked that attack to
organized crime. Also on Monday an explosive device
was thrown into a store in St. Petersburg, causing
property damage but no injuries.
In early August, a bomb blast in an underground
passageway in Moscow killed twelve people and injured
more than one hundred. Officials said that attack
could either have been crime related, or carried out
by Chechen rebels.
The recent attacks come one year after a series of
deadly apartment bombings in Moscow and Russian cities
that killed nearly 300 people. Russian officials
blamed those bombings on Chechen separatists. The
Chechens denied any involvement, but the apartment
blasts were a key factor in raising public support for
Moscow's military campaign in Chechnya. (Signed)
NEB/EC/KL
07-Sep-2000 09:07 AM EDT (07-Sep-2000 1307 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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