Moscow mourns metro bomb victims
 |
Police officers carry the body of a victim out of the Avtozavodskaya subway station.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Officials investigate deadly blast on Moscow subway.
|
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
MOSCOW, Russia -- Police questioned survivors and combed the wreckage of a Moscow subway car as a terrorism investigation opened into a suspected suicide bombing that killed at least 39 people.
Moscow's mayor declared a day of mourning for Monday, when the victims of Friday's rush-hour blast are to be buried. He warned that with dozens of seriously injured people still in hospitals, the final death toll could rise.
"Unfortunately the number of victims of the terrorist attack may still rise, since 14 people in city hospitals were critically injured in the attack and a further 24 were seriously hurt," Reuters quoted Mayor Yuri Luzhkov as telling reporters.
Russian security forces launched a massive hunt for perpetrators of the attack, at one point detaining two men who appeared to fit the description of a possible suspect. But they were released following a search of their car and documents, police said.
Detectives have towed the wrecked subway car to an area where it can be examined in detail. They are looking particularly at how the explosive device worked, what it was made of and where it might have been hidden.
Investigators also are collecting passengers' personal effects in an effort to identify the victims. Police are questioning survivors who are able to talk and looking for clues as to who might have carried out the bombing.
Authorities say 39 people died in the explosion, which occurred aboard the second car of an underground train carrying morning commuters to work. More than 100 people were injured.
Hundreds of Muscovites queued up to donate blood for the injured, and hospital officials say they now have more than enough.
After giving blood at a clinic, Yevgeny Savenkov said: "I have got a little child, a wife and many brothers. When I imagine that this could happen to them, I felt unwell. That's why I decided to come here."
Dozens of people placed flowers at the entrances of two metro stations linked by a tunnel where the blast took place.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to condemn the blast and said it could have been aimed at sowing discord ahead of March 14 presidential elections.
"Only with the united efforts of the world community can we deal with this plague of this 21st century," Putin said, according to Russia's Interfax News Agency.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Putin told reporters there was no doubt fugitive Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was the mastermind, Reuters reported.
"We do not need any indirect confirmation. We know for certain that Maskhadov and his bandits are linked to this terrorism," the news agency quoted him as saying.
"Russia doesn't conduct negotiations with terrorists -- it destroys them," Putin said.
In Grozny, Maskhadov denied that Chechen rebels were behind the blast.
A spokesman for Maskhadov said neither he nor his separatist government were "connected to this bloody provocation and (they) unequivocally condemn it."
Russian troops have fought a separatist movement for most of the past decade in Chechnya, which Putin has made a central issue in his presidential re-election campaign.
Friday's blast ripped apart the subway car as the train was traveling from Paveletskaya station to Avtozavodskaya station, southwest of the city center.
Russia's deputy interior minister, Alexander Chekalin, said the bomb may have been placed in a briefcase or backpack.
There may be surveillance video showing two "suspicious" people -- a man and a woman -- boarding the train with briefcases, Interfax reported, citing police sources.
U.S. President George W. Bush called Putin to offer American assistance if needed. Bush also condemned the attack "in the strongest terms," the White House said.
CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report
