Bomber kills 34 at Moscow airport; 168 hurt

MOSCOW — A bomber strode into the international arrivals hall at Moscow’s busiest airport yesterday afternoon and set off an enormous explosion, witnesses and Russian officials said. The blast left bodies strewn in a smoke-filled terminal while bystanders scrambled to get the wounded out on baggage carts.

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Russian authorities said at least 34 people were killed and 168 injured in the attack. Russia’s president, Dmitry A. Medvedev, said in televised remarks that the blast was an act of terrorism, and he ordered police to track down the perpetrators.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the attack was probably carried out by a male suicide bomber, and that authorities were trying to identify him.

In the moments after the blast, the smoke was so thick that it was difficult to count the dead, eyewitnesses said.

Arriving passengers stepped into the hall to the sight of blood on the floor and bodies being loaded onto stretchers. Ambulances sped away crowded with three or four patients apiece, many with shrapnel wounds to their arms and legs.

The blast hit Domodedovo Airport, a showcase for modern Russia, just as Medvedev prepared to woo foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Medvedev promptly postponed his departure to manage the aftermath of the attack.

The airport, southeast of the capital, is Russia’s largest airline hub, with more than 20 million passengers passing through last year. Domodedovo was involved in a terror attack in August 2004, when two Chechen suicide bombers boarded separate planes there, killing themselves and 88 others in midair.

The explosion is bound to further shake a country already on edge after a nationalist demonstration turned violent in mid-December, inflaming relations between ethnic Russians and migrants from the North Caucasus, a predominantly Muslim region on Russia’s southern border.

Though there was no indication yesterday evening of who was behind the blast, Moscow’s recurrent terror attacks have nearly always been traced to militants in the North Caucasus. The most recent came in March, when two women from Dagestan strapped on explosive belts and detonated themselves on the city’s subway, killing more than 40 people.

Doku Umarov, a rebel leader, took responsibility for that attack, posting a video in which he warned Russians that “the war will come to your streets, and you will feel it in your own lives and on your own skin.’’

Such attacks have typically strengthened the influence of Russian security forces and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin by firmly establishing security as the country’s top priority.

Putin, who appeared on state television yesterday evening, ordered the health minister to send her deputies to hospitals to make sure the injured were getting the medical care they needed.

The bomber apparently entered the international arrivals terminal from outside, a witness said, advancing to the blue tape where taxi drivers and relatives wait to greet arriving passengers, and set off the explosion at 4:32 p.m. local time. The area is open to the general public, said Yelena Galanova, an airport spokesman, according to the Interfax news service.

Artyom Zhilenkov, who was in that crowd, said he was standing about 10 yards away from a short, dark-complexioned man with a suitcase — the bomber, he believes. They were awaiting flights from Italy, Tajikistan, and Germany. Zhilenkov, a taxi driver, spoke to reporters several hours after the blast, wearing a track suit dotted with blood and small ragged holes.

“How did I manage to save myself? I don’t know,’’ he said. “The people behind me on my left and right were blown apart. Maybe because of that.’’

Two British travelers were among the dead, and French and Italian citizens were among the wounded, according to the Health and Social Development Ministry.

After the explosion, the hall filled with thick smoke and part of the ceiling collapsed, said Aleksei Spiridonov, who works at an auto rental booth. He said most of the victims were waiting to greet passengers.

“They pushed them away on baggage carts,’’ Spiridonov said. “They were wheeling them out on whatever they could find.’’

Investigators were working to determine the power and type of explosive used in the attack. Nikolai Sintsov, a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, said there are shrapnel holes in the arrival hall, but no shrapnel has yet been retrieved.

In televised remarks, Medvedev said that although Russia has imposed waves of new security procedures following terror attacks, they are not always implemented. He ordered police to boost security at all airports and on public transportation.