Translated material
Another explosion
An explosion occurred at Domodedovo airport. Data on casualties and deaths vary greatly. Official data: 35 dead, 168 people injured. However, she clarifies that due to the large amount of smoke, it is difficult to determine the exact number of victims. Meanwhile, Gazeta.Ru points to Twitter user likhtenfeld, who was the first to report the explosion: according to his data, about 70 were killed. According to the latest data, there are no children among the dead or wounded.
A criminal case has already been initiated under three articles: “Terrorism”, “Murder”, “Illegal trafficking in weapons and explosives”. They are already talking about a suicide bomber. It is possible that there were even several suicide bombers and there was more than one explosion - this assumption was made on the Russia Today television channel. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, however, denies the information that there were two explosions.
The explosion occurred, according to preliminary data, at 16.32 (according to other sources, at 16.37).
Twitter says the departure area is closed. Eyewitnesses say that after the explosion, the roof of the airport rose - this may indicate the power of the device. Later, RIA Novosti reported that the power was 5 kg. Interfax, citing a law enforcement source, reported that the power was at least 7 kg. The explosion occurred in the crowd. The explosive device was stuffed with bolts and other destructive elements. As an eyewitness to the incident tells the Daily Journal, the first ambulances appeared no earlier than half an hour after the explosion, so it cannot be ruled out that many victims died from their wounds without waiting for help from doctors. While waiting for ambulances, the victims were quickly transported on carts by airport staff. According to the latest data, more than 60 people were taken to hospitals.
A list of more than 30 victims has been published on the website of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - http://www.mchs.gov.ru/emergency/detail.php?ID=200381&.
The victims were taken to hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region (to the Domodedovo district hospital, to the hospital in the city of Vidnoye and to Moscow clinics - City Clinical Hospital No. 1 of the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, as well as to hospitals no. 7, 12, 13, 31, 64, 68, 79 and 83 ). Blood for them will be accepted by the Moscow City Blood Transfusion Station (branches at the Begovaya and Tsaritsyno metro stations) and the Moscow Regional SPK (Shosse Entuziastov station).
For those who want to donate blood, the transfusion station recommends doing so no earlier than next week - now patients will be transfused with blood that is already available in banks.
The police are checking the metro stations. Flights from Domodedovo are redirected to Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. According to eyewitnesses, there was no panic at the airport. Aeroexpress is allowed from the airport free of charge.
There are still different reports about where the airport attack took place. At first it was reported that the explosion occurred in the international arrivals area - eyewitnesses said that it happened in a cafe on the second floor, there was smoke and the ceiling was destroyed. Then there were reports that it happened in the baggage claim area and that one of the suitcases exploded. There is evidence that the terrorist was standing in the crowd of people greeting him. This was partially confirmed by an eyewitness contacted by the Dozhd TV channel - according to him, the explosion occurred in the place where arrivals were met. As they write on Twitter, there are no devices for detecting explosives in the arrivals area of the airport.
As a correspondent for the Dozhd TV channel reported after a conversation with the chief physician of the Sklifosovsky Institute, Mogeli Khubutia, the explosive device was most likely on the floor, since only the lower part of the body was damaged in the wounded. This may confirm the information that the explosive device was in the suitcase and not on the body of the suicide bomber. On the other hand, a source in the Ministry of Emergency Situations told Gazeta.Ru that there was no crater at the site of the explosion, which may mean that the bomb was attached to the suicide bomber’s belt.
The Novaya Gazeta website reports the words of an eyewitness, taxi driver Artem Zhilenkov, who saw a certain man with a suitcase come out into the middle of the hall: when he stopped, Zhilenkov saw a flash from the suitcase. According to him, most of the dead were greeters and taxi drivers who had gathered in the hall.
Life News reports, citing experts, that the terrorist attack could have been planned in the air, but the device went off after arrival. At the time of the explosion, there were people at the airport who had flown in from Hamburg, Vienna, Odessa, Dusseldorf, Hurghada, London, Brussels, and Burgas.
President Dmitry Medvedev holds an emergency meeting in connection with the terrorist attack. He instructed Transport Minister Igor Levitin, in conjunction with the FSB, to ensure measures to introduce a special regime at all airports and major transport hubs.
Interfax, citing a source in law enforcement agencies, reports that, according to operational information, three men who lived for some time in the capital region could have participated in preparing the explosion. Now they are wanted. In addition, RIA Novosti reports that the special services were warned that a terrorist attack could occur at one of the airports and were looking for three suspects, “but they managed to freely enter the airport, track the moment of the explosion that their accomplice carried out, and leave the airport " The agency later reported that investigators found a man's head at the scene of the tragedy and believe that these may be the remains of a suicide bomber.
Life News reports that despite the fact that information about the impending explosion was received several days before the tragedy, this did not affect the operation of the airport. The guards report that no one particularly monitored security, although there was even information about the place where the explosion was supposed to take place. “In recent months, the security staff has been reduced by 50 percent. The police did nothing but rob those arriving from Central Asia,” the publication quotes an airport employee.
According to the latest data, as eyewitnesses report, right before the explosion, someone (it is now assumed that it was a suicide bomber who was about to detonate an explosive device) shouted: “I will kill you all!” They talk about this on television and on Twitter.