A suspected ‘black widow’ is said to be behind the suicide blast in Russia’s busiest Domodedovo International Airport in which at least 35 were killed and 178 injured, reports said on Tuesday.
One of the eyewitnesses questioned by the investigators said he had seen how the hand baggage of a woman dressed in black exploded, according to Interfax news agency.
“The eyewitness declared that the young woman was dressed in black and the explosives were in the bag or suitcase on the floor next to her,” a source was quoted as saying by the agency.
It said the security agencies were aware of the possible terror attacks, and were looking for ‘Black Widows’ of the slain militants from the Caucasus, who had carried out all suicide attacks in past, including twin blasts in Moscow metro stations in March 2010.
“Security agencies were misguided as Domodedovo attack was carried out by men,” Interfax quoted another source in the secret services.
Insufficient security measures in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport are to blame for yesterday’s deadly blast, which left dozens dead, a spokesman for Russia’s national anti—terrorism committee (NAC) said on Tuesday.
“Security measures in the Domodedovo airport were insufficient, otherwise the terrorist attack would have never taken place,” Nikolai Sintsov told the Rossiya 24 TV channel .
According to state—run Rossiya 24 news channel , the police are also looking for four men suspected of involvement in yesterday’s blast in the international arrival lounge of the airport.
“They were spotted on the CCTV footage,” the TV said.
The absence of security check at the International Arrival’s gate was used by the alleged terrorists to sneak in with explosives, the TV channel reported.
RIA Novosti had said there was at least one suicide bomber with explosives with five kilo TNT equivalent.
Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said the power of the blast was between 5—10 kg equivalent of TNT.
Interfax did not rule out that the explosives were in a suitcase.
President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed to track down and punish those behind the suicide bomb attack, that bore the hallmarks of militants fighting for an Islamist state in the North Caucasus region.
Police sources have hinted that the Domodedovo airport bombing may be linked to Russia’s most volatile region.
Eyewitnesses told Russian TV that before a bomber detonated the equivalent of 7kg (15lb) of TNT, he had shouted: “I’ll kill you all!”
“Hundreds of people are in hospitals as of 2:00 Moscow time [23:00 GMT]. We estimate... that 48 of them are in serious and critical condition,” Deputy Health Minister Maxim Topilin said.
The bodies of five victims have already been identified.
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the creation of a special investigation group to investigate the incident.
He recalled that a number of safety and security laws had been adopted lately. “We need to find out how they were observed and how they are observed,” he said.
“What happened shows that not all of these laws are enforced properly in some places,” the President added. He said the explosion at Domodedovo Airport was a terrorist act.
