Suicide bomber kills six in Moscow

A SUICIDE bomb attack killed at least six people in the heart of Moscow yesterday, just two days after Russian voters handed President Vladimir Putin an even tighter grip on power.

Politicians said the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, might have been the intended target not the hotel. The attack came shortly before President Vladimir Putin addressed a meeting nearby at the Kremlin, and two days after Russian parliamentary elections.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said that there was at least one and possibly two female bombers and that they appeared to be lost before the blast, asking directions to the State Duma.

"Evidently, the bomb went off by accident," Mr Luzhkov said. "The National Hotel was not the place where the suicide bombers had planned to stage the explosion," he said.

After the explosion, bodies lay unattended on the pavement outside the plush National Hotel, on the corner of the capital's main shopping street and opposite the Kremlin, where Mr Putin was meeting legislators.

A woman's severed head lay on the pavement and scraps of flesh were scattered in the snow.

"We can say with certainty that this was a terrorist act linked to the elections to the State Duma (parliament)," said Sergei Tsoi, a spokesman for Moscow's mayor.

It was the second suicide bombing in Russia in five days and the second deadly bomb attack in the capital this year. The first one in July, which killed 15 people at an outdoor concert, was blamed on Chechen separatists.

Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said police were investigating whether as many as three people were involved in yesterday's blast.

Mr Putin, speaking after the attack, called for new action to halt terrorists, saying they were trying to undermine Russia's economic and democratic development.

"The actions of criminals, terrorists which we have to confront even today are aimed against all that," he said.

Police spokesman Kirill Mazurin said four people were killed outright. Another was reported to have died on the way to hospital. Moscow police said a sixth died later.

Thirteen people were wounded, police said. Itar-Tass news agency said the bomb was packed with nails and metal, producing a devastating effect when it went off just before 11am.

It quoted security sources as saying one of the suicide bombers had been on a police wanted list and was suspected of having undergone training at a camp for armed militants.

The attack cast another shadow over Sunday's election for parliament's lower house, which handed an overwhelming victory to Mr Putin's allies but was challenged by Western critics who said the winners had unfair access to state resources and media.

Last Friday, an apparent suicide attack on a commuter train killed at least 44 people near Russia's rebel Chechnya region, scene of almost daily bloodshed between Russian forces and separatist rebels.

The fourth such election since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 crushed Mr Putin's Communist and liberal opponents and prompted warnings of a return to authoritarian rule.

The outcome, with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party winning nearly half the Duma seats, makes Putin's re-election for a second term next March a near certainty.

Despite speculation that the new Duma make-up could allow Mr Putin to change the constitution to let him bid for a third term, the president yesterday ruled out any amendments.