MOSCOW, 10 December 2003 — 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.
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 Putin was meeting legislators.
A woman’s severed head lay on the pavement and scraps of flesh were scattered in the snow up to 30 meters away.
“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. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said the explosion may have been the work of one or possibly two women suicide bombers. Later, Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said police were investigating whether as many as three were involved.
Putin, speaking after the attack, called for new action to halt “terrorists”, saying they were trying to undermine Russia’s economic and democratic development.
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.
Itar-Tass news agency said the bomb had been packed with nails and metal pieces, making its effect more devastating when it went off just before 11 a.m. 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.
Vladimir Khymerkov, 45, was sitting in his parked car when a huge explosion thundered a few meters away, shattering windows on the lower two floors of the hotel.
A scene of carnage greeted his eyes through his bloodied windscreen, as he saw two medical students on their hands and knees, their white coats splattered with human remains.
The decapitated body of a man lay nearby, his head next to him.
“There were two girls covered in blood and human flesh who were crawling through the snow. A businessman who had an expensive coat was lying on the ground with his head torn off, it was lying there too,” Khymerkov said.
“Those girls were really lucky, they were hardly injured although they were only a few meters away, as they had their backs turned to it.”
A security guard was killed outright by the explosion and another person lay inert, his legs torn apart into a bloody mess, according to the eyewitness.
