A car bomb exploded outside a McDonald's restaurant in a busy Moscow district today, but Russian police said the blast was linked to criminal activities and not a terrorist act.
A car exploded outside a McDonald's restaurant in a busy Moscow district today, but Russian police said the blast was linked to criminal activities and not a terrorist act.
Police said seven people were injured, including one seriously in the lunchtime blast in southwestern Moscow near a crowded underground station and an outdoor food market.
"It was not an act of terror," a police official said. "It was merely a conflict between two criminal groups and we do not exclude the possibility it involved two ethnic gangs."
Interfax news agency later quoted police as saying the blast was a result of a clash between two criminal Chechen gangs.
Russian media earlier speculated the blast was a terrorist act because the home-made explosive device contained shrapnel which, according to Russia's internal security service, was aimed at the fast-food restaurant.
A series of bomb explosions in apartment blocks in Russian cities in 1999 killed about 300 people and were blamed by authorities on Chechen separatists. The blasts were cited in Moscow's decision to launch a new campaign against the rebels.