Press mull metro blast horror

"Tragedy: Election Bomb" was how Moskovskiy Komsomolets described it. "How they escaped from the Tunnel of Death" said the headline in Komsomolskaya Pravda. The horror of the bombing of a packed rush-hour underground train in Moscow has sent shockwaves through Russia's newspapers.

Some papers recalled the apartment block bombings in the Russian capital in September 1999 and the October 2002 Nord-Ost theatre siege.

Many were quick to blame Chechen rebels, while others suggested that the timing of the attack was linked to Russia's 14 March presidential elections.

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The terrorists chose their moment well. A week ago half of the Moscow police district chiefs were reshuffled. The districts are currently in chaos... Banana skins, in our usual Russian way of doing things. No matter how often we tread on them, we never learn.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets (mass-circulation Moscow daily)

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Yesterday's tragedy in the Moscow metro clearly shows that there are no reliable ways of protecting oneself against terror.

Izvestiya (leading daily)

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Alas, we have learnt nothing from previous incidents in the capital. After the apartment blocks were blown up, we feverishly set about searching... After Nord-Ost, document checks became endemic in Moscow, yet we never did find out how the terrorists organized the seizure of the concert hall. However blasphemous this may seem, we were overdue something like this.

Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star, Defence Ministry newspaper)

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The question being asked by Muscovites evacuated from the bombed train was this - what do these Chechen low-lifes want?

Komsomolskaya Pravda (popular tabloid)

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How do you know it's Chechens? This is international terrorism in which not only Chechen but other Russian politicians are implicated. I think this was a blow aimed at Putin ahead of the presidential election.

Ruslan Yamadayev, MP, former rebel Chechen brigadier-general cited by Komsomolskaya Pravda

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The first thought in everyone's mind is - Chechnya. Too many suicide terrorists and hired killers have tried to strike in our city. One might think that their motives are clear and require no further investigation. Yet one has to note that the explosion took place at precisely that time when the presidential election campaign is getting under way. In fact, this explosion has launched the campaign.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

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This explosion was to be expected, not only yesterday but also tomorrow, and not just because the Chechen terrorists have not laid down their arms. Because, first and foremost, the election has started in Russia. Basayev and Maskhadov are taking part on the side of the president's most implacable opponents - without the latters' consent, of course.

Izvestiya

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All the experience of previous terrorist acts shows that the trail from yesterday's atrocity could lead to Shamil Basayev's suicide bombers... True, in these circumstances one should not talk of Chechen terrorism as such, because such behaviour is alien to the Chechen way of thinking. Suicide bombers as an instrument of political pressure and intimidation are the trademark of international Islamic radical groups.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta (government newspaper)

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This is revenge for the counterterrorist operation. And it's the oligarchs putting up the money for the explosions... We need to impose strict order in the country, a curfew, document checks. They should make me Interior Minister, I'll impose order in the capital.

Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, leader of Liberal-Democratic Party, quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda

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I think the second carriage acted as a kind of human shield - the blast wave was absorbed by the crowd.

Moskovskaya Pravda quoting passenger identified as Mikhail

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We'd just left Avtozavodskaya. Then there was a soft bang from somewhere up front, as if someone had let off a firework. The train didn't stop at once, it kind of shuddered and then came to a halt. Initially nobody was unduly concerned. There was no panic.

Komsomolskaya Pravda quoting passenger Igor Blokhin

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The blast was so powerful that everyone in the train felt it. It blew out windows in virtually every carriage. People started leaving by themselves, since rescue teams took 30 minutes to get to us. There was almost no panic, people were in shock.

Moskovskaya Pravda quoting passenger identified as Ilya

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Now I know what apocalypse is. I have seen it for myself. I shall forever remember the stench, of fumes and scorched flesh. It is simply impossible to forget. It is as if you've briefly descended into purgatory.

Journalist Aleksandr Khinshteyn writing in Moskovskiy Komsomolets

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