Russian investigators are under pressure today to quickly establish who was behind the suicide bomb attack on a busy Moscow street that killed 10 people and injured 51.
Russian officials have made no public accusations, but the attack by a female bomber bore the hallmarks of Chechen rebels. It came a week after 90 people were killed in two simultaneous air crashes officials blame on suicide bombers and followed a sensitive Chechen elections on Sunday.
"We cannot rule out a Chechen trail," Itar-Tass news agency quoted an Interior Ministry source as saying after the attack towards the end of the evening rush hour near a metro station and crowded shopping centre.
Officials said 14 people were still in a serious condition in hospital with wounds from the bomb which had been packed with bolts and other shrapnel and which caused two parked cars to explode into flames.
A militant Islamist group claimed responsibility. In a Web site statement, the Islambouli Brigade vowed further attacks on "infidel" Russia in support of Muslim Chechen rebels.
Russian officials were sceptical about a similar claim from the little-known brigade for the August 24th air crashes that killed 90 people.
