NIGHTMARE: A lone figure peersthrough the dust and smoke in Moscow’sbombed-out Domodedova Airport yester-day as emergency workers wheel away oneof the scores of travelers wounded in the blast. (Reuters)
The suicide bomber who detonated a TNT-laden suitcase at a baggage carousel at Moscow’s busiest airport — killing 35 people and wounding 168 — is believed to be a woman, the Russian news agency reported early today.
The blast sent ball bearings, screws and other shrapnel flying through the packed arrivals section of Domodedova International Airport at around 4:30 p.m. — ripping through travelers and leaving the floor coated with blood and strewn with severed limbs, corpses and wailing survivors.
Witnesses reported hearing someone shout, “I’ll kill you all!” just before the blast.
It was yet another terrorist attack that struck deep into the heart of Russia, which has weathered numerous bloody bombings at the hands of Islamist separatists from Chechnya.
“People were running. Some were screaming, others looked panicked,” said Marina Tomilina, 23, a Chechen who arrived moments after the blast, told The Post.
“The explosion was so strong that it threw me against the wall,” said car-rental agent Alexei Spiridonov, 25, who was 100 yards away from the bomber. “There were people just lying in blood.”
Authorities are hunting for three possible accomplices of the bomber, who was ripped to shreds.
Two Britons were among the dead, as was Slovak actress Zuzana Fialova, the 2006 winner of her country’s version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
A group of American women were near the blast site, BBC reported, but the State Department said there were no known US casualties.
Suspicion immediately fell on Chechen separatists led by war lord Doko Umarov.
“Those responsible for the explosion will be tracked down and punished,” vowed Russian President Dmitry Medvdev, who canceled his trip to the Davos World Economic Forum.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Umarov’s militants were behind a March 2010 double suicide bombing in Moscow’s subway that killed 40.
In 2004, two female “black widow” bombers boarded two flights out of Domodedova and detonated their explosives in midair, killing all 90 people aboard.
