Moscow — Moscow today is a city stricken by fear since a bomb ripped through a packed subway car yesterday, killing up to 40 people and injuring more than 120.
Police believe that the attack was the work of a female suicide bomber, one of Chechnya's infamous "black widows, who have been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks across Russia in recent months that have left almost 200 people dead.
While the war in Chechnya, the breakaway Muslim republic in Russia's south, has raged off and on for a decade, it often seems far away and of little import to high-living Muscovites. Suddenly, though, Moscow feels very much like the capital of a country engaged in a messy war.
"According to the information we have ..... one can say that the explosion in the metro car was committed by a suicide bomber," Vladimir Yudin, Moscow's deputy prosecutor, said last night.
People react as they stand outside Avtozavodskaya Metro station in Moscow on Friday after a blast during the morning rush hour. (Sergey Ponomarev/AP)
Internet Links
The bomb was packed with five kilograms of explosives, said Valery Shantsev, Moscow's deputy mayor.
It may have been carried in a suitcase or backpack onto the morning rush-hour train.
Survivors told harrowing tales of dashing away from the scene through a pitch-black, smoke-filled subway tunnel filled with debris.
"We were trying not to breathe. ..... we saw dead people and body parts everywhere," said Ilya Blokhin, a 31-year-old doctor who was in a car toward the back of the train. "I'll never take the metro again."
Gruesome television pictures from inside the subway system showed the second car of the train completely destroyed. Its roof was ripped off, and soot-covered bodies sat side by side, still in their seats, amid twisted metal. Medics treated the injured on the station platform. At least 34 people were said to be in intensive care last night.
Security was tightened around subway stations, airports and government offices after the attack, and 1,000 Interior Ministry soldiers were in the streets. Several politicians called for the imposition of a state of emergency in Moscow.
"Nobody feels safe here any more. We're scared for our children," said one woman standing outside the Avtozavudskaya subway station as helicopters airlifted survivors to safety. The explosion occurred on a train just 300 metres from the station, on the southern edge of the city centre.
Appearing on national television, President Vladimir Putin placed blame for the bombing squarely on Chechen separatists. He said he holds rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, once Chechnya's elected president, responsible for the deaths.
A representative for Mr. Maskhadov said the rebel leader had nothing to do with the blast and condemned tactics that kill civilians.
Mr. Putin said the attack, which comes just as Russia's presidential campaign is getting under way, was apparently intended to pressure him into signing a peace agreement with the rebels. The blast also serves to remind voters that Mr. Putin was elected four years ago on the promise to put an end to the "Chechen problem."
Yesterday, he reiterated that he would never make peace with Mr. Maskhadov and his followers. "Russia does not conduct negotiations with terrorists; it destroys them," the President said, linking Chechen militants to international terrorism, which he called the "scourge of the 21st century."
If yesterday's attack proves to be a suicide bombing, it would be the fourth in Moscow in the past 12 months, the same number Jerusalem has experienced in that period. A suicide bombing that killed six people in December occurred within sight of the Kremlin walls.
If the intent of the attack is to terrorize Muscovites, the bombers could not have chosen a better target. Moscow's metro is its pride and joy, built in the 1930s, with elaborate stations packed with statues and mosaics so that some feel more like museums than transit hubs. It's also the world's busiest underground system, carrying about nine million passengers daily.
Muscovites have long feared an attack on the always crowded metro, but many were stunned when it happened.
"I'm very scared. I must take the metro tonight and I'm afraid," said Marina Gulia, a 22-year-old law student. "I never feel very comfortable in metro anyway; it's hard to breathe in there. I often feel like fainting, but from now on it'll be even worse. Each time now, I will expect something to happen."
Security is tight on the subway; police routinely stop anyone they feel looks vaguely Chechen. But the sheer number of people who use it every day makes it virtually impossible to protect completely.
Maxim Koshkin, 18, was just descending into Avtozavudskaya station by the escalator yesterday when the bomb went off. Hours later, even after several glasses of vodka meant to calm the nerves, his hands were still shaking.
"I wasn't scared before, even after the other terror attacks, because they didn't affect me," he said. "I'm very much scared now."
