Russia's top investigative agency says there has been an explosion at Domodedovo Airport, the busiest of Moscow's three commercial airports.
Russia's state news agency says 23 killed and 130 injured. Some reports put the toll above 30.
Interfax news agency reported it was a possible suicide blast, which happened at about 9:32 a.m. (ET), though there was no immediate confirmation on the cause of the explosion in the international baggage-claim area.
Smoke wafted out of the baggage claim area and people were seen running out of the emergency exits at the airport, local media reported.
Russia's Investigative Committee said there were at least 20 casualties in the blast and the state news agency RIA Novosti quoted a spokesman for the Russian aviation agency, Sergei Izvolsky, as saying there were dead among the casualties.
The Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station cited a traveller, identified as Viktor, as saying he heard the bang outside the airport, where he was waiting for a car.
“There was an explosion, a bang. Then I saw a policeman covered in fragments of flesh and all bloody. He was shouting ‘I've survived! I've survived!“’
Domodedovo is generally regarded as Moscow's most up-to-date airport, but its security procedures have been called into question.
In 2004, two suicide bombers were able to board planes at Domodedovo by buying tickets illegally from airport personnel. The bombers blew themselves up in mid-air, killing all 90 people aboard the two flights.
Moscow suffered its worst attack in six years in March 2010 when two female suicide bombers from Russia’s volatile Dagestan region set off explosives in the metro, killing 40 people.
The Kremlin is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, and rebels have repeatedly vowed they will take their battle to the Russian heartland.
With files from Reuters
Source: The Globe and Mail
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