RUSSIA: BOMB BLAST RIPS THROUGH MOSCOW UNDERPASS KILLING AT LEAST EIGHT PEOPLE AND INJURING DOZENS MORE.

Record ID: 358867

  • Title: RUSSIA: BOMB BLAST RIPS THROUGH MOSCOW UNDERPASS KILLING AT LEAST EIGHT PEOPLE AND INJURING DOZENS MORE.
  • Date: 9th August 2000
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (AUGUST 8, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: AMBULANCES AND POLICE CARS RUSHING TO THE SCENE 0.08 2. GV: VARIOUS PEOPLE MILLING AROUND 0.14 3. LV: SMOKE COMING OUT OF BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.24 4. MV: VARIOUS INJURED AND BLOODY PEOPLE WALKING OUT OF UNDERPASS (5 SHOTS) 1.00 5. CU: SOUNDBITE(Russian)UNAMED M
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVABESUQC6NM4QTYBTX16NVK7CD6
  • Story Text: A rush-hour bomb blast ripped through a Moscow underpass on
    Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring dozens and Russia's
    interior minister said he could not rule out Chechen
    separatist involvement.



    A bomb blast ripped through a busy Moscow underpass at
    rush hour on Tuesday (August 8), killing eight people and
    injuring dozens more just minutes away from the Kremlin.

    Investigators are keeping an open mind as to who was
    responsible for the bomb which exploded beneath the square, a
    favourite meeting place of Muscovites, although they have not
    ruled out a Chechen link.

    Officials said at least eight people died and about 50 were
    injured, some seriously.

    The bomb exploded just after 6 pm (1400 GMT) at the
    height of rush hour and the summer tourist season. There was
    no word on foreigners being hurt.

    Among the injured are a young girl and a pregnant women.

    Police investigators who entered the tunnel after Tuesday's
    blast found debris everywhere -- twisted and tangled pieces of
    metal, smashed glass, paper, splinters of wood, all visible in
    the sporadic lights of their video cameras. Two scorched
    bodies lay on the steps, and there were more in the tunnel.

    Many of those wounded in the blast staggered out of the
    dark, narrow passage into the early evening light on Pushkin
    Square, their faces covered in blood, their clothes in shreds.

    One woman was carried to an ambulance, her flesh severely
    charred and blood gushing from her nose. Another woman lay on
    the pavement, screaming in pain as paramedics bandaged her
    legs.

    Half an hour after the blast, smoke was still pouring from
    the passage, jammed with shops selling everything from
    cosmetics to compact discs and leather goods. The entrance to
    the passage was completely blackened.

    One explosives expert told reporters the blast may have
    been triggered by a suicide bomber. He added that the bomb
    could have been equivalent to between 400 grams (one lb) and
    1. 5 kg (three lb) of TNT.

    The explosion occurred weeks before the first anniversary
    of apartment blasts which killed hundreds in Russian cities,
    blamed by the Kremlin on Chechen separatists, and two days
    after the anniversary of a 1996 rebel raid on the regional
    capital Grozny.

    It also took place on the eve of the anniversary of
    Putin's ascent to high office, when he was named prime
    minister.

    There was no reaction to the explosion on the Chechen
    rebels' Internet site. The rebels repeatedly denied
    involvement in last year's apartment blasts but acknowledged
    leading an armed incursion into the region of Dagestan, one of
    the reasons behind Russia's 11-month-old campaign against the
    separatists.
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