Moscow bombing kills 35

MOSCOW – A suicide bomber slipped into a crowd waiting for international passengers arriving at Moscow’s newest and busiest airport, detonating a huge blast that killed 35 people and exposed another weak spot in security for global air travelers.

The attack at the Domodedovo international airport illustrated how difficult it is to safeguard public areas at terminals, even as the United States and other governments engaged in a cat-and-mouse battle with would-be bombers have tightened screenings of passengers and their luggage.

In the United States, such areas at airports are protected by a hodgepodge of security agencies. In Moscow, visitors are supposed to pass through a metal detector, but one survivor of Monday’s attack said he saw no one being required to do so.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings, which also wounded about 130 people. However, Russia has suffered repeated attacks by Islamic militants based in the Caucasus region. Russia has fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya, and though the military campaign has largely ended, sporadic violence continues there and in neighboring regions.

Russian officials said they were searching for three Chechen men in connection with the bombing, and added that the attack might be linked to the explosion of a homemade bomb in a Moscow apartment on Dec. 31. A woman officials believe was being prepared to carry out a suicide attack was killed in that blast.

Domodedovo, which underwent a massive renovation and expansion in the last decade, is about 25 miles southeast of central Moscow and is the largest of three airports that serve the capital. In 2004 a pair of suicide bombers were able to buy tickets illegally from airport personnel at Domodedovo and went on to detonate explosives in midair on separate flights, killing 90 people.

Flights from Germany and Britain were among those arriving about the time of the explosion late Monday afternoon, and Russian officials said two British citizens were among the dead.

One witness said he believed he saw the bomber from the back, a man who was in the middle of about 150 people crowded into the cavernous arrival hall awaiting passengers. He said the man was dressed in a black coat and hat, and had a suitcase at his feet.

“At that very moment when I was looking at him, he disappeared in an explosion,” said the witness, 30-year-old Artyom Zhilenkov. “I think it came from the suitcase. I was standing between two columns propping up the ceiling, and that is what I think saved my life, cushioning the shock wave. People all around me were lying on the ground. A choking smoke was quickly filling up the place.”

Zhilenkov, a former military officer who was meeting a friend arriving from Dusseldorf, Germany, said in a telephone interview that he ran for the exit fearing a second explosion, but then turned back to help the injured.

The bomb was packed “full of metal pieces” and had the force of between 15 and 22 pounds of TNT, a source in the Russian Investigation Committee told the state RIA Novosti news agency. Grainy cell phone pictures showed bodies piled up in the smoky hall.