A homemade bomb that ripped through a Moscow market on
Monday morning killed 10 people including five Chinese and one
Vietnamese, and left 55 others wounded, Russian news agencies
reported.
Eight people, including two children, were killed instantly when
the explosion hit the Eurasian section of Cherkizovsky market in
the Sirenevy Bulvar district, northeast Moscow, at 10:40 AM local
time (0640 GMT). Two others died later in hospital.
"According to preliminary information, five Chinese and one
Vietnamese citizen were killed. The nationalities of the others who
were killed have not yet been established," Svetalana Petrenko, the
press secretary of the Moscow prosecutor's office, told
Interfax.
Two men, suspected of staging the explosion which also wounded
55 others, have been arrested, city Prosecutor Yuri Syomin was
quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
"Two persons have been detained as suspects in this case. We
will not disclose their names in the interests of the investigation
but they have been identified," Syomin said.
"We have serious proof that these persons carried out these
crimes," he added.
"Several minutes before the explosion, cafe clients saw two men
drop a bag by a table and dash out," a Moscow police force
spokesman was quoted as saying.
The bomb contained over one kg of TNT explosive, Syomin told
reporters at the market.
"The blast occurred between two containers inside a trade
pavilion. There was a natural gas cylinder next to the bomb, so it
was at the center of the blast, too," Syomin said.
The explosion was most likely a criminal act, but the
possibility of a terrorist attack has not been ruled out.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2006)
