- Title: RUSSIA: Moscow hospital receives victims of metro attacks
- Date: 30th March 2010
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ANZOR KHUBUTIA, DIRECTOR OF SKLIFASOVSKY MEDICAL EMERGENCY INSTITUTE, SAYING "We, at the hospital, received eight people: five men and three women. Six people, currently, are still in the operating rooms. One patient is in critical condition with heavy injuries, complicated injuries. The other patients are in serious condition with the exception of tw
- Embargoed: 14th April 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVADOS3D68MR1IHY4KRNPM4T2SAW
- Story Text: Moscow hospital director speaks to media about victims of metro attacks.
Emergency crews in Moscow began to recover dead bodies from metro stations on Monday (March 29) after two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed metro trains during the morning rush hour.
Witnesses described panic at two central Moscow stations after the blasts, with commuters falling over each other in dense smoke and dust as they tried to escape the worst attack on the Russian capital in six years.
Sixty-four others were injured, many gravely, and officials said the death toll could rise.
Some of the wounded were airlifted to hospitals in helicopters and central Moscow was brought to a standstill as police closed off major roads.
A steady stream of ambulances brought bodies of victims to the Sklifasovsky Medical Emergency Institute where the medical director described the condition of patients they had received from the attack sites to media waiting at the hospital.
"We, at the hospital, received eight people: five men and three women. Six people, currently, are still in the operating rooms. One patient is in critical condition with heavy injuries, complicated injuries. The other patients are in serious condition with the exception of two women, who have inhalation injuries and light burns, they are in the burn victim's unit," Khubutia said.
The first blast tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8 a.m. as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service, the FSB. It killed at least 23 people.
A second blast, less than 40 minutes later in the second or third carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 more people, emergencies ministry officials said. Another three people died in hospital.
Russia's top security official said the bombs were filled with bolts and iron rods.
The attack has stirred fears of a broader campaign in Russia's heartland by Islamists from the North Caucasus.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who cemented his power in 1999 by launching a war to crush Chechen separatism, broke off a trip to Siberia, declaring "terrorists will be destroyed".
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said those responsible had links to the North Caucasus, a heavily Muslim region plagued by insurgency whose leaders have threatened to attack cities and energy pipelines elsewhere in Russia. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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