Six killed in downtown Moscow suicide car bomb

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Six killed in downtown Moscow suicide car bomb

At least six were killed in a suicide car bmob explosion near Moscow's Red Square Tuesday morning, First Deputy Moscow Prosecutor Sergei Borisov said.

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At least six were killed in a suicide car bmob explosion near Moscow's Red Square Tuesday morning, First Deputy Moscow Prosecutor Sergei Borisov said.

A female suicide bomber set off an explosive-loaded car at about 10:50 a.m. Moscow time (0750 GMT) in the capital's main shopping street Tverskaya, near the National Hotel, which is not far from the Kremlin.

Borisov said the blast injured 11 people, including a Chinese citizen.

Sources in the capital's first aid service said that the name of the Chinese was Lu Yuan, aged 23, the Interfax news agency reported.

One of the 11 injured, who are all hospitalized, is in critical condition. Most of the rest got scrapes, burns and bone fractures,Kirill Mazurin, spokesman for the Moscow Interior Department, was quoted as saying.

The explosive capacity of the blast is estimated at nearly one kg of TNT, the Itar-Tass news agency said.

Xinhua reporters saw shattered windows on the first and second floors of the National Hotel and damaged cars parked nearby.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has blamed the car bomb explosion on terrorist act, suggesting that the State Duma, just on the opposite of the ill-fated hotel, was the original target, Interfax reported.

Luzhkov also believed that there was another suicide woman behind the tragedy because two women had asked a passer-by on the location of the lower house of Russian parliament. "Evidently the bomb went off by accident," he added.

Policemen have detonated an explosive device attached on the body of the suicide bomber. The power of the device, which was not fully set off, was about five kg of TNT, according to Itar-Tass.

Sappers found a explosive belt stuffed with metal balls on the badly damaged body of the second suicide bomber, saying the explosive capacity is equal to some 600 grams of TNT.

A woman suspected of involvement in the tragedy has been declared as wanted by the agencies. The suspect, aged between 40 to 45, has a Caucasian appearance and is believed to be armed.

The Tuesday incident occurred shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin opened a Kremlin meeting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the nation's constitution, which falls on Friday.

Putin addressed regional leaders at the conference that "(The constitution) is a foundation for the development of a free market economy, democracy, and the development of the nation as a whole and the preservation of its territorial integrity. The actions of criminals, terrorists, which we have to confront even today, are aimed against all that."

The Tuesday explosion came just two days after Russia's nationwide parliamentary elections to the State Duma. Two days before the Sunday campaign, another suicide bombing attack ripped through a commuter train in southern Russia early Friday and killed 44 people.

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