Blast Kills at Least 7 in Central Moscow

M O S C O W, Aug. 8 -- A bomb ripped through a busy underground walkway packed with hundreds of commuters and shoppers in central Moscow today, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.

A second bomb was found and defused near the scene of the blastat Pushkin Square, the Interfax news agency reported.

Police said it was being treated as a terrorist attack, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Immediate suspicion centered on Chechen rebel forces, with police already on alert for possible attacks by Chechen separatists to mark the Aug. 6, 1996, anniversary of the rebels’ capture of the Chechen capital of Grozny.

Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov today said the blast was “100 percent Chechnya” and that two young men were the prime suspects.

Speaking on NTV private television, Luzhkov said there was an “obvious Chechen connection” to the blast. “The testimony from several witnesses who were able to answer questions in hospital shows...it was 100 percent Chechnya,” Luzhkov said.

Earlier, Russian television said police were searching for two men from the Caucasus region and Interfax news agency quoted Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo as saying that law enforcement agencies had descriptions of the suspects.

Luzhkov said witnesses had reported that two young men had begun bargaining in one of the small shops in the underpass and had then gone to change money, leaving a bag behind them. He said the explosion happened soon after.

Chaos in the Streets

Medical workers treated badly injured people lying in the road.Wounded pedestrians, their clothes burned and shredded and coveredin blood, staggered out of the passageway as other people ran forcover.

Natalya Zulumatova, the ends of her hair singed and herankles stained with blood, said she was inside one of the smallkiosks which line the inside of the passage when the blast hitjust after 6 p.m.

“We were inside the stand. We heard a bang and the lightswent out. I was hit by the blast wave,” she said. “There wassmoke all over the place. We all managed to get out in thesmoke. I saw many injured people.”