At least 20 people were killed and more than 40 seriously injured in suicide bombings in Russia's capital of Moscow on Saturday.
The explosions occurred at the Tushino air field in northwestern Moscow during a popular rock festival. Some 20,000 people had gathered for the event.
Two women tried to enter the Tushino airfield, the concert site, at two separate points but were stopped by guards.
"After realizing that they wouldn't be able to get into the festival ... the terrorists blew themselves up," Moscow police spokesman Valery Gribakin told Interfax.
Earlier reports said that three explosions occurred at the air field. The first blast took place when guards stopped a suspicious woman at the entrance to the air field and she immediately detonated explosives placed on her belt.
Police put minimum power of each of the two bombs at equivalent of 500 grams of TNT.
Russia's HTV television reported at the scene that one of the female suicide bombers survived the bombing with injuries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been immediately briefed about the incidents.
Several suicide attacks have taken place in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya and its neighboring regions recently. Russian authorities have blamed the terrorist attacks on Chechen rebels.
Russia Blames Chechen Rebels on Moscow Blasts
Chechen rebels are suspected of conducting the fatal blasts on Saturday near a popular rock festival in northwestern Moscow, Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said.
The minister blamed the terrorist attacks on Chechen rebels, saying that the blasts could be linked to the Kremlin's announcement on Friday that presidential elections would be held in Chechnya in October.
Moscow police spokesman Valery Gribakin said the two female suicide bombers tried to get into the Tushino airfield, the concert site, at two separate points but were stopped by guards.
"After realizing that they wouldn't be able to get into the festival ... the terrorists blew themselves up," Gribakin said.
One of the suicide bombers has been identified as Zulikhan Suleimanovna Likhadzhiyeva, born in 1983 in the Kurchaloi district of Chechnya, after the police found her passport, he added.
Police put minimum power of each of the two bombs at equivalent of 500 grams of TNT, and later discovered another explosive device near the entrance to the festival and defused it, Itar-Tass reported.
Doctors said the exact toll could not be decided so far as a large number of "human body fragments" were lying around on the explosion sites.
The one-day festival "Krylya" (Wings) is a highly popular summer event for Moscow's youth. The festival at the Tushino airfield in the northwest of Moscow was packed with a crowd of more than 20,000 spectators when the first blast went off.
Performance of the concert, which was scheduled to last 3 hours, is still going on at the moment, while spectators are withdrawing from the scene by emergency buses.
The city prosecutor's office condemned the blasts as terrorism, Interfax reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was immediately briefed about the incident, offered condolences to the families and friends of the victims and expressed sympathy with those injured.
Several suicide attacks have taken place recently in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya and its neighboring regions. Russian authorities have blamed the terrorist attacks on Chechen rebels.
In June, two suicide blasts in Chechnya killed at least 38 people. In May, two powerful explosions ripped through the Chechen administration building in Grozny, killing at least 78 people.
A total of 129 people were killed when heavily-armed Chechen terrorists seized more than 800 audience hostage in a Moscow theater last October.
(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2003)
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