A female suicide bomber killed eight people and injured at least ten others when a car exploded outside a Moscow subway station today.
Russian news reports said the blast occurred about 4.15pm GMT near the Rizhskaya subway station in northern Moscow, in an area between the entrance to the station and a nearby supermarket-department store complex.
“With a great deal of probability, we can state that what happened was a deliberate explosion caused by a female suicide bomber,” said an Interior Ministry source quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Emergency vehicles and dozens of police cars converged on the scene. Police reports suggested the explosion was caused by a bomb packed with metal bolts. “There are children among the wounded,” a police source told the RIA Novosti news agency.
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A gutted white car with a flame-blackened bottom section stood between the station and the store.
“There was a powerful blast and then a smaller one. I thought my roof would come off,” said Sergei Pyslaru, 30, who said he was driving on a nearby street at the time of the explosion.
Alexei Borodin, 29, was walking with his mother when he heard “a very powerful bang. Something flew past my head, I don’t know what it was.
“There were people lying in the square,” he said. There were pieces of bodies...We were walking through pieces of people.”
Mr Borodin said he saw “about five people” who were too badly hurt to get up. “One young guy tried to get up and couldn’t.”
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Television reports said that the blast broke windows in the lobby of the metro station, which was closed after the blast and would not reopen until the damage left by the blast had been cleared.
Trains were going through the station without stopping and passengers were advised to use alternative means of transport or stations.
Moscow police had been put on high alert after a bomb exploded at a bus stop in the city’s south earlier today, injuring three people.
The subway blast came a week after two Russian passenger planes crashed simultaneously after explosions on board, killing all 90 people aboard in what authorities say was a terrorist attack.
Suicide bombings blamed on Chechen rebels and their supporters have hit Moscow and other parts of Russia over the past several years.
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In February, 41 people were killed in a rush-hour explosion on the Moscow subway that officials said was a terrorist attack; and in December a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a hotel adjacent to Red Square, killing five other people and wounding another 13.
Chechens voted on Sunday for president of the warring republic in an election that was backed by the Kremlin as a move toward establishing stability. The election was part of the Kremlin’s strategy for trying to undermine support for the separatist insurgents who have been fighting Russian forces for nearly five years.
Criminal underworld feuds in Russia also frequently spill over into violence, including car bombings, that have killed and injured bystanders.
The United States said Tuesday it was “very concerned” at initial reports from Russia about the explosion and said it was willing to help in an investigation.