RSOE EDIS - Situation Update No. 2 : Russia - Terror Attack

RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Budapest, Hungary RSOE EDIS ALERTMAIL

Situation Update No. 2 Posted:2010-03-29, 05:27:31 [UTC] Ref.no.: VW-20100329-25500-RUS Situation Update No. 2 On 2010-03-29 at 06:02:42 [UTC] Event: Terror Attack Location: Russia Capital City Lubyanka and Park Kultury METRO Stations Moscow Number of Deads: 40 person(s) Number of Injured: 11 person(s) Situation: About 40 people were killed today when two explosions ripped through Moscow's metro system in the early morning rush hour, emergency services said. Russia prosecutors said they had opened a criminal investigation into possible "terrorism" after the twin blasts. The first explosion took place on a train while it was in the Lubyanka station in central Moscow, the spokeswoman for the Russian emergencies ministry Irina Andrianova told the ITAR-TASS news agency. "14 people died in the wagon of the train and 11 on the platform,'' she said. At least 10 people were wounded. Minutes later, a second explosion went off at the Park Kulturi metro station, also in central Moscow, Russian news agencies reported. The initial death toll from the second blast was put at 12, although the first reports spoke of 15 dead. "In the second explosion there are 12 people dead and seven injured,'' a spokeswoman for the emergency services told AFP. Andrianova said this blast also took place in a train carriage while it was on the platform. She added that rescue workers were on the scene. ITAR-TASS said emergency services were impeded from accessing the site of the blast due to the early morning rush hour traffic. The Russian capital over the last decade was hit by a string of deadly explosions claimed by militants from its turbulent southern region of Chechnya but this has become less frequent in the last years. The Interfax news agency quoted a security source as saying that the first explosion could have been triggered by a suicide bomber. "There is information that the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber,'' the source said. Chechnya itself has seen a worrying rise in violence over the last months as the pro-Kremlin local authorities seek to clamp down on an Islamist uprising. Please DO NOT reply to this message: replies may be treated as errors and result in your subscription being deleted. If you have trouble or other queries, send email to havaria@rsoe.hu RSOE EDIS is operated by the National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE), Budapest, Hungary. Because of the complexity of this system and its dependence on other systems, we cannot be responsible for delays or failures in forwarding or transmission. You're receiving this AlertMail because you subscribed for the service. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Contact: havaria@rsoe.hu