Moscow mourns after blast kills 10
A militant Muslim group that claimed responsibility for the crash of two Russian airliners last week said it was also behind this latest attack.
Police promised heightened security on the sprawling city's transit system, one of the world's busiest and relied on by many of the city's estimated 10 million people. But the attack was only the latest in a string of violence in the capital and elsewhere that the government has appeared helpless to prevent.
Most of the violence has been blamed on rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya or their sympathisers.
Tuesday's blast, carried out by a female bomber, occurred almost exactly a week after two Russian planes crashed within minutes of each other in what officials say were terrorist attacks. All 90 people aboard the two planes were killed.
A militant Muslim web site published a statement claiming responsibility for the bombing on behalf of the "Islambouli Brigades," a group that also claimed responsibility for the airliner crashes.
The statement said Tuesday's bombing was a blow against President Vladimir Putin, who "slaughtered Muslims time and again". Mr Putin has refused to negotiate with rebels in predominantly Muslim Chechnya, saying they must be wiped out.
Suicide bombings blamed on Chechen rebels and their supporters have hit Moscow and other parts of Russia frequently. In February, 41 people were killed in the rush-hour explosion on the Moscow subway that officials said was a terrorist attack; in December, a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a hotel adjacent to Red Square, killing five other people.
Chechen separatists carried out the spectacular seizure of a Moscow theatre in 2002, holding hundreds hostage until a heavy-handed rescue using knockout gas left the kidnappers dead, along with 129 hostages, most from the gas.
The latest blast also happened a few hours after the Supreme Court turned down the appeal of a Chechen woman convicted in an aborted suicide bombing attempt at a Moscow restaurant last year.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters near the Rizhskaya subway stop in northern Moscow that the bomber was walking toward the station but saw two police officers stationed there, turned around "and decided to destroy herself in a crowd of people."
The blast tore through a heavily trafficked area between the subway station and a nearby department store.
Several female suicide bombers allegedly connected with the rebels have caused carnage in Moscow and other Russian cities.
Many are believed to be "black widows" who have lost husbands or male relatives in the fighting that has gripped Chechnya for most of the past decade. Investigators of the plane crashes are seeking information about two Chechen women believed to have been aboard, one on each plane.
Police spokesman Valery Gribakin said police patrols were being increased and security at subway and train stations and airports was being boosted.
Television reports yesterday showed commuters heading to the Rizhskaya station, laying cut flowers and lighting candles near the entrance. They appeared dejected and resigned.
June 1995 - Budyonnovsk First major hostage drama. Six months after Russian forces marched into the breakaway republic of Chechnya at the end of 1994 to prevent its secession, a group of gunmen herded hundreds of civilians into a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk.
The June siege lasted several days before Russian negotiators agreed to start peace talks and allow the gunmen return to Chechnya. About 100 people were killed during the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid. The peace talks eventually broke down, but gave the Chechens time to regroup against Russian forces who had gained the upper hand in the fighting.
The Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin, faced heavy criticism for letting the rebels off so lightly. January 1996 - Kizlyar Some 250 militants led by rebel leader Salman Raduyev held up to 3,000 people in a hospital in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar, demanding a Russian withdrawal from Chechnya, before releasing most of the hostages and taking the remaining few back to Chechnya.
As they made their getaway across the Chechen border, Russian troops launched an assault.
Several hostages died in the following days as the Russian military brought the crisis to a bloody end.
The situation was complicated when pro-Chechen gunmen hijacked a Black Sea passenger ferry.
The gunmen threatened to blow up the ship - and the 255 hostages on it - if the Russians did not halt their offensive against the Kizlyar hostage-takers.
The hijackers surrendered after four days. 1996-1999 After the first Chechen war ended in 1996, the province descended into lawlessness, and kidnappings became rife as rebel warlords fell out with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov.
Victims included British aid workers Jon James and Camilla Carr, who were freed in September 1998 after a year in captivity, and four engineers who were kidnapped but later found beheaded.
Herbert Gregg, an American missionary held hostage for seven months and released in July 1999, said much of his treatment was good - despite the fact that the rebels videoed themselves cutting one of his fingers off.
In 1998, security firm Kroll Associates UK said that there were about 100 British expatriates being held hostage in the region. 2001 Plane hijacked as it flew from Istanbul to Moscow in March 2001. Three people were killed when Saudi Arabian security forces stormed the plane. A week later, several pro-Chechen gunmen seized about 120 tourists at a luxury Istanbul hotel in protest against the war.
In July 2001, up to 30 people were held in searing heat on a bus in southern Russia by a Chechen man demanding the release of five Chechens who had been captured in a previous hijacking. 2002 In May, a lone gunman held about 10 people hostage, again at an Istanbul hotel. They were all released unharmed. But the incident etched on Russian memories is the theatre siege of October 2002, when some 700 people were taken hostage as they watched a performance in the capital Moscow. One hundred and twenty nine hostages and 41 Chechen fighters died when Russian troops stormed the theatre. Most were killed by the gas used to knock out the hostage-takers.
