Correspondent Paul Anderson: Damage was minimal

The Interior Ministry says a man drove his car across Red Square at high speed - knocking down barriers - and jumped from the vehicle moments before it exploded in front of the gates.

One of the injured guards, a soldier in the Presidential Regiment, is in a serious condition.

Officials in the Kremlin said the blast rattled windows inside the fortress.

President Boris Yeltsin was still on holiday on the Black Sea recuperating from "fatigue".

Motive unclear

The man was later identified as Ivan Orlov, a 65- year-old journalist, who worked for a nationalist magazine.

According to the Interfax news agency he was armed with a pistol.

His motives remain a mystery and officials have so far refused to confirm that it had been a deliberate bomb attack on the presidential quarters.

The police said Mr Orlov would be given a psychiatric examination, while investigations continued into whether the incident was a criminal act.

'Firework display'

Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion and saw a car in flames and belching smoke near the Kremlin's Spassky Gate around 7 pm (1600 GMT).

Shortly after the blast a plume of smoke rose in the darkness above the multicoloured onion domes of St Basil's.

"It was a real firework display," said Sergei Semyonov, adding that he had heard no gunfire before or afterwards.

Hundreds of police quickly cleared the area. The shattered, blackened car was towed away some three hours later.

Terrorist bombings, as opposed to mafia-style gang warfare, are relatively rare in Russian cities. Four people died in an unexplained bomb attack on the Moscow metro in 1996.