Two female suicide bombers kill at least 37 commuters in bomb attacks on Moscow tube trains

By Mail Foreign Service

Splattered with blood, a wounded man makes a phone call on his mobile outside the Park Kultury metro station shortly after a female suicide bomber blew herself up


Two bombs, 40mins apart, detonated during morning rush hour

At least 37 people dead, 65 injured

No group claims responsibility so far. Rouble falls


Two female suicide bombers killed at least 37 people and injured 65 by targeting two packed Moscow tube trains during the busy rush hour today.

President Dmitry Medvedev declared Russia would act 'without compromise' to root out terrorists as he ordered airports to be put on alert and security to be stepped up throughout the country.

The two bombs are the worst attack on the Russian capital for six years and no group has yet claimed responsibility.

But suspicion has fallen on Muslim militants from the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency spreading from Chechnya to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia.

Witnesses spoke of panic at the two underground stations this morning after the blasts as people fell over each other in dense smoke and dust, trying to escape.

In scenes that will have been chillingly familiar to Londoners after the July 7 bombings in 2005, bloodied and injured passengers emerged onto the streets looking bewildered.


*** Scroll down for video report ***


Desolate: A wounded woman covered in dust with her left eye blackened outside Park Kultury metro station


The first explosion tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8am 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.

About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people.

One passenger told the RIA news agency: '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.

'People were yelling like hell. There was a lot of smoke and in about two minutes everything was covered in smoke.'

Another called Alexei added: 'I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator.

'People started running, panicking, falling on each other,' he said.
Some of the injured were airlifted to emergency hospitals in helicopters.

Dozens of commuters were helped from each station to waiting ambulances.

Surveillance camera footage posted on the internet showed several motionless bodies lying on the floor or slumped against the wall in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers crouched over victims, trying to treat them.


Detectives and scenes of crime officers examine the aftermath of the blast at Park Kultury metro station


At the site of the other attack, the city's Lubyanka station officials examine the scene. The station lies beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service


Firefighters carry a body from Lubyanka metro station in Moscow after a female suicide bomber blew herself up during rush hour this morning


A woman breaks down outside Lubyanka station after at least 37 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings in the city


this image from Russia Today television an injured man is treated in an ambulance


An elderly woman is overcome with emotion as she talks to a woman from the Emergencies Ministry


A hospital helicopter lands at Zubovsky Boulevard to evacuate the victims from the Park Kultury metro station


Massacre: A bloodied passenger is treated on the side of the road


Passengers try to make their way out of Prospekt Mira subway station. The attacks happened at the height of the morning rush hour


Desperate: Dead bodies are scattered in the walkway at one of the stations







source: dailymail