A woman suicide bomber blew herself up near Moscow's Red Square today killing five bystanders and raising fears of a new wave of terror attacks in the heart of the Russian capital.
Officials said the nearby State Duma - lower house of parliament - may have been the intended target and the bomb probably detonated prematurely.
Chechen separatists are suspected as they frequently use women as suicide bombers.
Police fanned out across Moscow in search of a second woman suspected of involvement in the attack, and warned that she too might also be carrying explosives.
Moscow Mayor Mr Yuri Luzhkov said that two women - possibly the suicide bomber and her accomplice - appeared lost before the blast and asked a passer-by for directions to the State Duma, located nearby, across Moscow's most elegant shopping street.
Moments later a woman was blown up outside the exclusive National Hotel. "Evidently, the bomb went off by accident," Mr Luzhkov said. "The National Hotel was not the place where the suicide bombers had planned to stage the explosion."
The attack came two days after Russian parliamentary elections and shortly before President Vladimir Putin addressed a meeting at the Kremlin, which is visible from the National Hotel.
The blast left the Russian capital on edge. People in Moscow were already jittery after a suicide attack in July and last year's Chechen rebel hostage-taking raid on a Moscow theatre. This year alone, nearly 300 people have been killed in Russia in bombings and other attacks blamed on Chechens.
Mr Luzhkov said security cameras near the hotel picked up footage of the suicide bomber, a woman dressed like so many others in the capital in a light-coloured coat and carrying a purse. He said the purse was rigged with explosives and that she also was wearing an explosive belt packed tightly with metal balls.
Moscow police spokesman Mr Yevgeny Gildeyev said the bomb contained about 2.2 pounds of TNT.
The blast occurred near a Mercedes car that was parked on the pavement. It shattered windows in the hotel, leaving white curtains billowing in the wind.
Bodies and body parts were strewn about, including a head and a headless female body.