The Hindu : Women bombers trigger blast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2003

International

International

Women bombers trigger blast

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW DEC. 9. A suicide bomb attack killed six and injured 11 people in central Moscow today.

A bomb went off in front of a posh hotel a hundred metres from the Kremlin wall about 11:00 a.m. local time. Five people were killed on the spot, one died on the way to hospital, and 11 persons were hospitalised, one of them in serious condition, a Moscow prosecutor said.

Most of the victims were students of the Moscow State University (MGU) situated next to the hotel. One of the wounded was a woman student from China. The blast, equivalent to about 500 grams of TNT, shattered the first and second floor windows in the hotel and damaged several cars parked nearby.

Authorities said the explosion was a terrorist attack carried out by two women bombers who died on the spot. The bomb, packed with bolts and nails, went off shortly after the two women asked for directions to the State Duma, Lower House of the Russian Parliament, which stands just across the street. Police said the terrorists might have targeted the Parliament building.

One of the suicide bombers had a passport issued to Inga Gizoyeva, a Chechen. Police said they had a video tape of the attack recorded by the hotel's cameras and are searching for a third woman terrorist.

The blast occurred two days after parliamentary elections in Russia and four days after a suicide bomb attack on a commuter train near Chechnya killed 44 and injured over 200 people. It was the second suicide bombing in the capital this year. The first one in July killed 16 people at an outdoor concert. All the attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels.

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