The two suicide bomb attacks that killed 38 people and wounded over 60 in Moscow on Monday targeted the city's busy subway system, a favourite target of Chechen terrorists.
In the past six years militants mounted five attacks on the Moscow Metro. In terms of casualties, Monday's bombings were the worst attack on the capital since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 41 people on a metro train. There have been no terrorist attacks in Moscow since August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station, killing 10 people.
As in February 2004, on Monday women suicide bombers set off their homemade bombs strapped to their bodies when they were inside trains. In 2004, the blast occurred when the train was travelling in a tunnel, which explains why it caused more casualties than the current two blasts that ripped through trains parked at stations.
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Eye-witnesses said that surprisingly there was little panic among passengers and this helped avoid more casualties as thousands of people were evacuated outside.
Both metro stations bombed on Monday — Lubyanka and Park Kultury — are busy interchange stations and are packed during rush hour. They are situated in the city centre and the blasts not only halted train service on several lines, but also paralysed all traffic above as police sealed off streets to give free passage to dozens of ambulances that rushed wounded passengers to hospital.
Even as Russian authorities strengthened security and installed closed circuit TV on all stations and in trains, officials conceded it was impossible to provide 100 per cent protection to the underground transport system. Experts said it was not feasible to set up airport-style screening that could detect explosives and metal objects as this would disrupt subway traffic.
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However, thanks to CCTV police could promptly identify the two suicide bombers and their three accomplices and launch a manhunt for them.
Interestingly, none of the metro blasts caused much damage to the subway stations themselves. On Monday, both bombed stations reopened for traffic in the afternoon.
The Moscow Metro has 298.8 km of route length, 12 lines and 180 stations; on a normal weekday it carries about 8 million passengers.