36 killed as suicide blast tears thru' Russian train
150 hurt, Chechen rebels blamed
AFP, Moscow
At least 36 people died and more than 150 were injured when a suicide blast blamed on Chechen rebels tore through a Russian commuter train near the war-torn republic yesterday, two days before a national parliamentary election. The interior ministry in Moscow said a suicide bomber was behind the explosion, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The blast was so powerful that it ripped one of the train's cars in half. Investigators from the Federal Security Service sifting through the wreckage found body parts of the suspected bomber strewn around, with a bag nearby that had contained mainly plastic explosives equivalent to 10 kilograms of TNT. "Next to body parts of the suicide bomber we found a bag in which there had apparently been an explosive device that was detonated in the train, equivalent to up to 10 kilograms of TNT," the FSB press service told ITAR-TASS. Television images showed one of the carriages as a mangled wreck of metal with shreds of bloodied clothing hanging from rods poking out. The roof was collapsed, the windows blown out. The other train cars looked intact. Earlier reports had suggested that the blast might have been caused by a remote-controlled bomb placed on the train tracks. At least 28 people died on the spot and four died in hospital in the Stavropol district, which lies north of Chechnya, emergency ministry officials in Moscow told AFP. Officials did not specify where the other four victims had died. More than a hundred people were rushed to local hospitals, eight of them in emergency care, rescue officials told new agencies. Fifty people were treated for minor injuries and released. "We will find those who have committed this terrorist act," Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov vowed. A top lawmaker blamed yesterday's blast on Chechen separatists. "Since practically all of our attacks are linked to Chechnya, it's clear these Chechen rebels" are responsible for the blast, Alexander Gurov, chief of the State Duma's defense committee, told Moscow Echo radio. The rebels' goal was "to remind ahead of elections that they exist, they have not been defeated and for the government to think about that," Gurov said. A wave of bombings blamed on Chechen guerrillas, claiming more than 150 lives, had struck Russia ahead of a Kremlin-organized October 5 presidential poll in the republic.
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