keyword search: AND OR          

A massive explosion tore apart a Moscow Metro subway car packed with morning rush-hour commuters Friday, killing 39 people and wounding more than 150 in what some officials said was a suicide attack.

The explosion occurred in the second wagon of a train after it left the Paveletskaya station near the centre of the Russian capital and headed southeast to Avtozavodskaya station, the news agency Interfax reported, citing emergency officials.

Police immediately barricaded the two metro stations and stopped all traffic on the Metro, clogging up the capital's streets.

One stunned survivor said he stumbled past dead bodies in the dark Metro tunnel as he rushed away from the scene after the conductor opened the doors and told people to flee.

"There was a lot of smoke, a lot of dead bodies," said Ilya Blokhin, a 31-year-old doctor who was in a wagon at the back of the train when the bomb went off. "I'll never take the Metro again."

The Canadian Embassy in Moscow said it had "been checking actively" into the situation, and so far there was no word of any Canadians being involved in the explosion.

The blast was almost immediately attributed to suicide bombers from the breakaway republic of Chechnya, in the south of Russia. If true, it would mark the fourth such attack in Moscow in the past year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the blast, saying that that "terrorism is the plague of the 21st century."

Mr. Putin linked the attack to Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechen president after Russian forces withdrew in 1996 at the end of a disastrous 20-month war against separatist rebels.

Mr. Putin, who is expected to win the March 14 presidential elections handily, has built much of his strong image on a firm refusal to negotiate with the Chechen rebels. He reiterated that position Friday and said the blast appeared intended to "put pressure on the head of state."

He said that calls for negotiations with Mr. Maskhadov after such attacks "are indirectly confirming that Maskhadov is linked to these bandits and terrorists."

"We know for sure that Maskhadov and his bandits are linked to this terror," he said.

Mr. Maskhadov's foreign envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, denied the involvement of Mr. Maskhadov, who has been in hiding in recent years.

The Interfax news agency cited unnamed police officials as saying that a suicide bombing was the "main working version" of the subway attack, which was the deadliest terrorist blast to hit the capital since Russia launched its second war in Chechnya.

Police have a videotape of a woman suspected of being the attacker and her alleged accomplice standing on platform at the Avtozavodskaya subway station before boarding the train; the explosion tore through the train about 500 metres after it left the station en route to the city centre.

Throwing some doubt on the theory of a suicide bombing, Deputy Moscow Mayor Valery Shantsev said that investigators had not found metal shrapnel, which usually fills suicide bombers' explosives. He said that the bomb had likely been in an attached case or rucksack on the floor of the subway car.

U.S. President George W. Bush phoned Mr. Putin to express condolences, and U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said the United States was ready to offer assistance if requested. Condemnations also poured in from European capitals and former Soviet republics.

Foreign Affairs minister Bill Graham condemned the attack and sent condolences on behalf of all Canadians.

"We hope that the investigation currently being conducted by Russian authorities identifies and brings to justice those responsible for this horrific and shocking crime," Mr. Graham said in a statement.

"Canada strongly condemns this deplorable act of terror. We stand resolute in the fight against terrorism and are committed to continued co-operation with Russia and the rest of the international community in this endeavour."

In December, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside the National Hotel across from Moscow's Red Square, killing at least five bystanders. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a Moscow rock concert last July, killing themselves and 14 other people. Five days later, an aborted suicide bomb attack at a central Moscow restaurant killed a disposal expert who was trying to defuse the bomb.

A bombing in a Moscow subway car in June 1996 killed four people and in August 2000, a bomb exploded at a crowded pedestrian underpass filled with kiosks at Pushkin Square, the site of three metro stations.

The deadliest terrorist bombings to hit Moscow occurred in fall 1999, when more than 150 people were killed in two apartment house blasts. Those explosions were among the events instigating Russian forces to launch the second military campaign in Chechnya.

In October 2002, 129 hostages died when Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theatre, almost all from the knockout gas that Russian forces pumped into the theatre to end the siege.

Built in 1930s using forced labour, the Moscow Metro is the city's pride and joy, decorated with statues and elaborate mosaics, giving some stations the air of museums rather than transit hubs.

It's also the world's busiest subway system, transporting some 9 million people a day.

With files from Globe reporter Mark MacKinnon in Moscow