A homemade bomb that ripped through a Moscow market on Monday morning killed 10 people including five Chinese and one Vietnamese, and left 55 others wounded, Russian news agencies reported.

Eight people, including two children, were killed instantly when the explosion hit the Eurasian section of Cherkizovsky market in the Sirenevy Bulvar district, northeast Moscow, at 10:40 AM local time (0640 GMT). Two others died later in hospital.

"According to preliminary information, five Chinese and one Vietnamese citizen were killed. The nationalities of the others who were killed have not yet been established," Svetalana Petrenko, the press secretary of the Moscow prosecutor's office, told Interfax.

Two men, suspected of staging the explosion which also wounded 55 others, have been arrested, city Prosecutor Yuri Syomin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

"Two persons have been detained as suspects in this case. We will not disclose their names in the interests of the investigation but they have been identified," Syomin said.

"We have serious proof that these persons carried out these crimes," he added.

"Several minutes before the explosion, cafe clients saw two men drop a bag by a table and dash out," a Moscow police force spokesman was quoted as saying.

The bomb contained over one kg of TNT explosive, Syomin told reporters at the market.

"The blast occurred between two containers inside a trade pavilion. There was a natural gas cylinder next to the bomb, so it was at the center of the blast, too," Syomin said.

The explosion was most likely a criminal act, but the possibility of a terrorist attack has not been ruled out.

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2006)