December 6, 2003	Saturday	Shawwal 11, 1424

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ROSTOV-ON-DON (Russia), Dec 5: A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 40 people aboard a packed commuter train near Chechnya on Friday in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called an attempt to destabilize Russia just before key polls.

The attack caused fury in Moscow, where Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov vowed to hunt down those responsible, calling them “animals” and saying authorities would make the ground “burn under their feet”.

The blast struck an early morning train, filled with students and workers, outside Yessentuki station in Russia’s southern fringe, as Mr Putin’s allies prepared to fight Sunday’s parliamentary elections on a strong law and order platform.

Television pictures showed film of the train’s second carriage torn to pieces. Schoolbags, shattered glass and sheets of twisted metal littered the adjacent rail bed.

Justice Minister Yuri Chaika said the attack bore the hallmarks of “Chechen terrorists”, but the guerillas denied involvement.

“We condemn all terror acts and acts of violence...directed against the civilian population,” the fighters said on their website.

A spokesman for the local administration said 40 deaths had been confirmed. Doctors were treating more than 160 injured.

“No one could tell us what had happened,” said a doctor at a Yessentuki hospital. “All they can recall is being thrown about the carriage. The shock waves hurled them against the walls.”

Witnesses said the blast shook the surrounding area. “(It) was so strong that it smashed all the windows,” an elderly woman said on television. “The cup of tea I was drinking was sent flying. I felt as though I had been picked up and put back down again.”

A spokeswoman for the FSB security service said evidence at the scene suggested a suicide bomber. “Alongside the fragments of a body, we found a bag containing, apparently, an explosive device with an electronic detonator,” she said.

Earlier, the FSB director said three women and one man had carried out the attack and two women had leapt from the train minutes before the blast.

President Putin, in televised comments in the Kremlin, said: “The criminal act which was committed today was an attempt to destabilize the situation in the country on the eve of parliamentary elections.”

The election is expected to boost support for allies of Mr Putin, who has taken a hard line against Chechen independence and in 1999, as prime minister, sent troops back into the region to subdue it.

Some analysts speculated that suggestions the Chechens were behind the blast could boost the pro-Kremlin vote. But Mark Urnov of the Ekspertiza analytical institute said: “I don’t think the bombing will have any effect. Russians simply prefer not to think about Chechnya; it’s just another tragedy.”

Chechnya has featured little in the election run-up. Russia continues to suffer casualties there, its grip far from complete.

Mr Putin, who faces a presidential poll in March, has made the restoration of firm central state control a major policy plank since taking office in 2000.

Past attacks have served to increase his popularity, as when Chechen guerillas seized 800 hostages at a Moscow theatre last year. One hundred and twenty-nine people died when special forces stormed the building using gas.—Reuters