Investigators connect latest terrorist act with recent ones

Eyewitnesses of the terrorist act talk about what they have seen

About ten ambulance vehicles arrived to the site several minutes after the explosion took place. FSB agents and field engineers arrived later to check all parked cars in the area.

Two burnt cars are seen on the square near the entrance to the Rizhskaya metro station – Audi and VAZ-2107. One of the cars was burnt to the ground, Newsru.com reports. The car does not have the front part – it looks like as if it has slammed into a post. The epicenter of the explosion was situated in front of the car.

The blast wave smashed shop-windows of the Krestovsky department store and glass doors of the metro station. The department store is situated opposite the station – the explosion damaged the front part of the store.

Terrorist act near the Rizhskaya metro station: Photo gallery

A girl, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she was standing in the hall of the metro station at the moment, when the explosion happened, waiting for her friend. Her friend went outside for cigarettes, when she heard the sound of the explosion. The girl ran outside and saw a burning car. The glass doors of the station were smashed. The girl saw her friend lying on the ground – she had no arms.

The blast was very powerful. The shock wave scattered dead bodies 30 and 40 meters around.

”I was driving along the Rizhskaya highway and witnessed the explosion,” 24-year-old Muscovite Andrey says. “Cars went on fire after the blast, people started running around in panic. I saw two wounded women – they flagged down a car and left.”

The power of the bomb, which blew up between the Krestovsky department store and the Rizhskaya metro station made up about two kilograms of trotyl. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov told reporters, the type of the bomb was not typical for suicide terrorists – it was too powerful.

According to latest information, the bomb used at the latest act of terrorism in Moscow was similar to the one, which blew up in the Moscow metro in February of the current year. “The expertise is not over yet, but it is already possible to presume the bomb of the latest terrorist act was similar to other bombs, which blew up in the Moscow metro in February of this year, near National Hotel in December and on the Tushino airbase, during the last year's rock music festival,” a source told Interfax.

According to the source, experts have identified the type of the bomb used for the terrorist act near the Rizhskaya metro station. The bomb was placed in a bag together with bolts and other metal items. The body of the suicide terrorist was severed into pieces. Specialists found her head, arm and leg. The character of the explosion says the terrorist was carrying the bag on her shoulder.