Explosion in busy central Moscow
Ten people have been killed and 51 injured by a female suicide bomber in busy central Moscow, officials say. An Islamist group claimed responsibility for the bombing at the crowded Riga metro station on Tuesday and vowed there would be more attacks on "infidel" Russia, according to a statement published on a Web site. The blast follows a series of suicide attacks in Russia over the past year, including near simultaneous plane crashes exactly a week ago, all of them linked by officials to Chechen rebels seeking independence from Moscow. "We in the Islambouli Brigades announce our responsibility for this operation... which comes in support of Muslims of Chechnya," said the statement signed by the group, which had earlier also claimed responsibility for last week's plane crashes in Russia. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov said the bomber had tried to enter the station, but became unnerved by some police. "She...was at the door when she saw two policeman. She was scared and turned and decided to destroy herself," Luzhkov said. "Up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) of explosive was used," Luzhkov told reporters at the scene. "This is an unusual amount of explosive for a woman suicide bomber. There was a desire to cause maximum damage." He said four children and 11 women were among the injured. Seven people, including the suicide bomber, were killed on the spot. Officials later said the death toll had reached 10 with at least 51 injured, all but two of them sent to hospital. Police said the bomb had been packed with metal bolts, informs Reuter. According to Bloomberg, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near a subway station entrance in northern Moscow, killing 10 people and injuring 33, in the third terrorist attack in the country in one week, a government official said. Two cars caught fire after a woman set off the device near the Rizhskaya station, the Federal Security Service's spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said on Rossiya television. The woman, who was walking toward the station, turned around when she saw police checking documents, and the explosion followed, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said on television. ``It was a big load of explosive, equal to as much as a kilo of TNT,'' Luzhkov said. ``The bomb was loaded with screws and other small metal objects.'' A group calling itself the Islambouli Brigades claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, according to Agence France-Presse. The same group claimed responsibility for the Aug. 24 crashes of two Russian passenger jets, within minutes of each other. All the passengers and crew were killed. Investigators said the planes were destroyed by explosions. The Moscow blast brings the number of terrorist attacks in the past week to 99. It occurred at the Rizhskaya square, a hub that contains a subway station, a railway station, a bridge that marks the beginning of one of Russia's main highways, a large supermarket and a street market. A woman strapped with explosives blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station Tuesday night, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50 in the second terrorist attack to hit Russia in a week. Seven days earlier, almost to the hour, two Russian jetliners crashed within minutes of each other in what officials determined were terrorist bombings. All 90 people aboard were killed, and the investigation has focused on two Chechen women believed to have been passengers. A militant Muslim web site published a statement late Tuesday claiming responsibility for the subway bombing on behalf of the "Islambouli Brigades," a group that also claimed it caused the jetliner crashes with suicide teams in retribution for Russia's war with Islamic rebels in Chechnya. The veracity of neither claim could be confirmed, publishes ABCNEWS.
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