Carnage as bomber targets Moscow airport
Updated 27 minutes ago
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... ion=justin
A suspected suicide bombing on Monday killed at least 31 people and wounded over 100 at Moscow's Domodedovo international airport in an attack described by investigators as an act of terror.

Eyewitnesses who spoke to Russian radio described a scene of carnage after the blast ripped through the baggage claims section of the arrivals hall at Russia's largest airport.

"Today at 4:32 pm (local time) an explosion went off in the international arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport," the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.

The spokesman for the committee, Vladimir Markin, said that a criminal inquiry had been opened into an "act of terror".

An official with the investigators, Tatyana Morozova, told the Interfax news agency that the blast happened in the baggage claim area.

At least 31 people were killed and 130 wounded in the blast, Interfax said, quoting an official with the health ministry.

"According to preliminary information, the explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber in the international departures hall," the news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying.

"Burned people are running about.. they are carrying pieces of flesh on stretchers," said one eyewitness, named as Andrei, who was standing near the information stand at the airport.

"Something terrible is happening there. Tens of people are being dragged out on stretchers, on trolleys," he told City FM radio.

"People are on stretchers, some being carried, there are wounded, people covered in blood," a passenger named as Nadezhda told the radio.

"You can't tell the living from the dead. I was meeting someone. We are not protected in this country," another witness, Alexei, told the radio.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been informed of the incident, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.

Moscow police on Monday stepped up security across the city after the blast, Interfax quoted law enforcement officials as saying.

Domodedovo Airport is Russia's largest airport in terms of passenger traffic.

The Russian capital has been repeatedly rocked by attacks over the last years blamed on militants from its overwhelmingly Muslim Northern Caucasus region.

Double bombings carried out by two female suicide bombers on the Moscow metro on March 29, 2010 killed 40 and wounded more than 100.

Russia is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus and deadly attacks on government and police officials in Dagestan as well as neighbouring Chechnya and Ingushetia are an almost daily occurrence.

The Kremlin fought two wars against separatist rebels in Chechnya in the 1990s but the insurgency has now become more Islamist in tone and has spread to neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.

However officials have repeatedly warned of the risk of attacks in Russia's heartland.

- AFP

Those poor people.

A warning of things to come. I wish the best for everyone hurt in this tragedy.

every time i'm in the security line at the airport, i wonder why they just don't attack the lines. i suppose its not as frightening to people as slipping past security, but this sounds frightening as hell.

The interesting thing about attacking lines as opposed to planes is you not only get to injure innocent people, there is also a greater risk of panic related injuries.

also, the title to this thread is very awkward.

jesus fucking christ

So much this. There are so many completely vulnerable - and basically indefensible - areas at an airport it's frightening. No amount of intrusive TSA policies or manpower can completely eliminate the threat.

i appreciate the specificity as i now know none were killed in departures

Not to compare my difficulties with TSA to dead Russians, but what will TSA do to prevent this in the US? Those naked pictures are going to look like nothin' compared to what they do now.

There is only one thing that can be done. Don't let them in, in the first place. Oh, herro profiling. Of course that won't help the real threat... trained soldiers coming back from the wars who can't get jobs, end up in jail, convert over to PeacefulFarmer, and decide to take revenge on uncle sam.