Woman suicide bomber kills 36 in Russia

A blast believed to have been caused by a woman suicide bomber ripped through a Russian commuter train near the war-torn region of Chechnya today, killing at least 36 people and wounding dozens.

The FSB state security agency and the Interior Ministry said a woman appeared to have detonated the explosion, which sliced the train’s second carriage in two.

“We believe the explosion was carried out by a woman,” said an FSB spokeswoman.

The presumed suicide bomber’s body was found, along with some unexploded grenades and remnants of a bag believed to have carried the bomb. The bomb was filled with shrapnel, said local prosecutors.

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, head of the party backed by President Vladimir Putin in this weekend’s parliamentary elections, vowed to track down the perpetrators, saying: “The ground will burn under their feet”.

Many of the dead were thrown from the train. Scores of others suffered injuries, said Emergency Ministry spokesman Andrei Somishchenko.

The bomb went off at around 8am (5am Irish time), in a rush-hour attack that seemed calculated to kill and injure a maximum number of people. The train was travelling between the cities of Mineralnye Vody and Essentuki.

The force of the explosion toppled the second carriage on to its side and fire fighters and ambulance workers struggled to pull victims from the mounds of shattered glass in the wreckage. A small fire broke out in the electrical wiring in the wreckage, hampering rescue efforts.

Hours after the blast, rescue workers continued to pull dead from underneath the wreckage.

In Moscow, Prosecutor General’s office spokeswoman Natalia Vishnyakova said detectives were investigating many scenarios, including the possibility the bomb was linked to Sunday’s election for

Russia’s lower house of parliament.

Opinion polls point to gains for United Russia, backed by Putin, who has taken a hard line against Chechen separatism and sent Russian forces back into the region in 1999.

Six people were killed in two blasts on the same train line in September. No group claimed responsibility for those attacks.

Russia has been hit recently by numerous bombings and suicide attacks, which the government usually blames on rebels from Chechnya.