| Suicide bombers took to the streets of Moscow Nine people are believed to have died and 42, including four children, were injured in a new terrorist attack in Moscow last night. At about 20.15 a powerful explosion occurred on the square of the Rizhsky station at the entrance to the Rizhskaya metro station. What exactly exploded there - either a car bomb or another suicide bomber - was not initially established. However, the first operatives who arrived on the scene immediately found out that it was 99.9% a targeted terrorist attack. Scattered bolts and nails with which the bomb was filled were found around the explosion site. That is, it is completely obvious: the mine was not intended for any specific individuals, but for ordinary passers-by.
Within an hour and a half, all the capital's authorities came to the scene of the emergency - the head of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate Vladimir Pronin, the mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, the city prosecutor Anatoly Zuev. The latter almost immediately came out to journalists and reported that in connection with the tragedy a criminal case had been opened under Art. 105 and 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - murder and terrorism.
According to eyewitnesses, the first ambulance crews, who were at that moment on the neighboring streets, began to arrive at the Rizhsky Station Square within 5-6 minutes. Within half an hour, alerted officers from the nearest police stations and riot police officers who arrived in time cordoned off the entire square. At the same time, traffic police officers blocked traffic along Mira Avenue and all neighboring streets up to Sretenka. However, the delivery of the wounded to hospitals - mainly to the nearby Sklifosovsky Institute and children's hospitals No. 9 named after Speransky and Filatovskaya - continued for more than an hour. On the one hand, due to immediate traffic jams on the streets of Moscow, which were already crowded at this time of day, the ambulances had difficulty making their way to the scene of the tragedy; on the other hand, they very slowly reached hospitals with the wounded.
The bodies of 7 dead were found at the scene of the explosion, two more died soon in the ambulances on the way to the hospital. 42 people received various injuries - mainly shrapnel wounds, burns and fractures. Doctors yesterday assessed the condition of 12 of them as extremely serious.
After the first inspection of the explosion site, experts and operatives suggested that the bomb (or even several bombs) was in a Zhiguli or Nissan car, which were parked in rows on a small passage between the pavilion of the Rizhskaya metro station and the building of the Krestovsky department store. The blast wave and shrapnel in both buildings almost completely shattered the glass, and the affected area was about 100 meters. According to experts, the bomb's power was at least 1 kg of TNT. Both cars were badly damaged. However, after detectives began interviewing the wounded and eyewitnesses of the explosion, another version emerged - that the bomb was detonated by a female suicide bomber. Several people said that they saw a woman walking from the direction of the department store towards the entrance to the subway, but when she saw a police patrol standing at the door, checking someone’s documents, she turned around. The woman took a few steps, approaching the cars, after which an explosion occurred in her place. Within a few hours, experts discovered fragments of her body at the scene of the tragedy. Already at about 11 pm this version became the only one.
In this regard, last night the leadership of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate again tightened security measures throughout the city, deploying reinforced squads in all public places, including metro stations. The police were ordered to pay special attention to single women of Caucasian appearance.
The leadership of the federal intelligence services yesterday refrained from making general comments about the situation in Moscow and the country as a whole in connection with the terrorist attack on Rizhskaya. However, most likely, today at least some measures to tighten security measures will be taken. It is possible that the last explosion, a terrorist attack committed on the evening of August 24 at a public transport stop on Kashirskoye Highway, and the explosions that followed just 3 hours later on board two passenger airliners taking off from Domodedovo airport are parts of one carefully planned plan. If this is really the case, then we will be talking about the fact that Chechen militants managed to once again create a large, well-covered sabotage network in Moscow and bypass all the “networks” of the special services. However, the Moscow authorities are not yet going to adapt to terrorists. As Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov announced yesterday at the scene of the tragedy, in connection with the tragedy on Rizhskaya in Moscow, it is planned to further strengthen security measures, but festive events on the occasion of City Day this coming weekend will not be canceled.
YOUR OPINION Victor PAUKOV, Konstantin FILATOV |
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