MUSCOVITES WILL observe a day of mourning today, to commemorate the 35 people killed in a terrorist attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday.
Speculation about the planning and logistics of the attack reached fever pitch in the Russian media yesterday and many here consider terrorists from the North Caucasus to be the most likely perpetrators.
Local news reported that the attack was carried out by either one or two suicide bombers. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
As the city struggled to come to terms with the worst terrorist attack in almost a year, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev visited the injured in hospital and vowed to investigate security at the country’s busiest airport.
Speaking to journalists, Mr Medvedev described the attack as “well planned and designed to kill as many people as possible”. He also indicated that failure to prevent the attack will have consequences for airport staff.
“It’s a good airport, everyone admits that, it’s new and modern. But what happened shows that there were breaches in security, and for that everyone who makes decisions there should be held accountable, including the management of the airport itself.”
Security breaches have been strongly denied by airport staff. The bomb exploded in the international arrivals hall where taxi drivers and acquaintances gather to meet people coming off incoming flights. To access this part of the airport, as in many other international airports, people do not have to pass through security checks.
Diana Markosian is a photographer who arrived at Domodedovo two hours after the blast took place. “The situation was very calm, a bit too calm, I didn’t even feel like there was an explosion there,” she said, adding that passengers were coming through arrivals with no idea about what had happened.
Ms Markosian also said that authorities seemed to have everything “more or less under control” in the aftermath of the blast.
“Police stood on every corner. The security checkpoint broke on both ends of the airport which caused minor arguments between security and cops that lasted for about an hour or so,” Ms Markosian added.
The official death toll remained at 35 yesterday, with the emergencies ministry announcing eight foreign nationals confirmed dead and a further 11 in the city’s hospitals.
Despite Russian reports that two Britons were killed in the blast, Britain has so far only confirmed the death of one citizen, Gordon Cousland. An employee of American IT firm CACI, Cousland had a young daughter and was planning to get married in the near future.
Aer Rianta public affairs manager Paul O’Kane confirmed that no employees of its subsidiary company Arial, which operates at Domodedovo, were hurt in the blast. Mr O’Kane added that two expatriate staff are based in Moscow, neither of whom has been brought home.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin pledged to give the families of those killed in the blast three million rubles compensation (€74,000). Those injured in the attack will receive between 1.2 and 1.9 million rubles depending on the severity of their injuries.
The identities of 26 of the dead were confirmed with authorities and relatives trying to establish identities of the remaining nine.