MOSCOW - An explosion ripped through the international arrivals hall at Moscow's busiest airport on Monday, killing 31 people and wounding about 130, officials said. The Russian president called it a terror attack.
The state RIA Novosti news agency, citing law enforcement sources, said the mid-afternoon explosion at Domodedovo Airport may have been caused by a suicide bomber. Those at the airport said it was filled with thousands of people at the time and the terminal filled up quickly with smoke.
"From the preliminary information we have, it was a terror attack," President Dmitry Medvedev told officials in a televised briefing.
He ordered authorities to beef up security at Moscow's two other commercial airports and other transport facilities, including the subway system, the target of past terror attacks.
Although there have been repeated attacks on the Moscow subway and Russian trains — most blamed on Chechen militants — the bombing Monday was the first involving a Russian airport since 2004.
Sergei Lavochkin, who was waiting in the arrivals hall for a friend to arrive from Cuba, said he saw emergency teams carrying bloodied people out of the terminal.
"I heard a loud bang, saw plastic panels falling down from the ceiling and heard people screaming. Then people started running away," Lavochkin told Rossiya 24 television.
Explosion at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow kills 31, injures 130
