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Medvedev points finger at airport management for deadly suicide blast

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that management of Moscow’s international airport will have to answer for Monday’s apparent suicide bombing that killed 35 people. At least eight foreigners are reportedly among the dead. The French Foreign Affairs ministry said at least one Frenchman was among those injured.

Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin
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“Everyone linked to the company that makes decisions there, and the management of the airport itself, has to answer for everything,” the Interfax news agency quoted Medvedev as saying Tuesday.

He said security breaches allowed the explosives to be brought into the crowded international arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport.

"What happened demonstrates that there were clear security breaches. Someone had to try very hard to carry or bring through such a vast amount of explosives," he said.

He called the bombing a well-planned act of terror that triggered a national "tragedy".

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a security source saying Tuesday that the attack may have involved a female suicide bomber from Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus.

"The terrorist was accompanied by a man. He was standing beside her and
[the blast] tore off his head,” the agency quoted the source as saying.

Investigators on Monday said they had found the head of “Arab appearance” that they presumed to have been that of the bomber.

"This act of terror followed the classic scheme used by terrorists who come from the North Caucasus," said the security official.

Among the 35 dead were at least eight foreigners, according to a preliminary list published Tuesday by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry.

The list of injured published by the health ministry includes some foreigners, including an Italian, a Slovakian actress, and a French citizen identified as Frédéric Ortiz.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday night that a French person was among those injured.

The Russian Health Ministry said Tuesday that 43 of the 100 injured are in serious or critical condition.

“It was horrible," an eyewitness told RFI's Russian service. "People were panicking and running out of the hall …Some were looking for their relatives … There were people bleeding on the floor. I saw that the roof had collapsed. There was dust, smoke, blood everywhere. We also saw people lying on the floor, some of them were injured.”

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