At about 2340 the city police received a report from the Imbir restaurant, located at 16, 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, about a suspicious customer. As a spokesman for the city’s main police directorate told Gazeta.Ru, the security guards had noticed a girl aged about 20 standing near the door of the restaurant. The girl was of Caucasian origin and her behaviour had aroused suspicion. The guards decided to check her ID documents.
But as they approached the girl began to shout that she has a bomb in her bag, which she was about to detonate. Police officers dispatched to the scene took the girl outside, forced the bag from her and handcuffed her. To be on the safe side the guards covered the bag with body armour.
By midnight a Gazeta.Ru correspondent reporting from the scene said that the 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street had been cordoned off, jamming the city centre’s streets with traffic. Customers were evacuated from several cafes, and residents of neighbouring houses were warned about the bomb threat. Several ambulances arrived at the scene.
A team of explosives experts examined the contents of the bag with the help of a robot, which confirmed that there was a bomb inside. At first the security officers tried to dispose of the deadly device from a distance, using a water cannon, but it would not detonate. Then an FSB expert dressed in protective armour began examining the bag. At approximately 0215, as he bent down to inspect its contents, the bomb went off killing him immediately. Police officers said he had not touched the bag.
According to preliminary reports the power of the device amounted to about 400 grams of TNT. A law enforcement official in comments for Gazeta.Ru noted that had the bomb exploded inside the restaurant, it could have claimed dozens of lives. However, other than the FSB officer, no one was hurt.
The woman detained by the police was taken to FSB headquarters at Lubyanka for questioning. According to preliminary reports, the girl is an ethnic Chechen, born in 1980. She arrived in Moscow from the Northern Caucasus. A probe into the attempted terror attack has been launched by the FSB and the prosecutor’s office of Moscow. The top city prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov said ''The investigation views the event as a continuation of a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated lately in Moscow.'' There are also unconfirmed reports that a Chechen man in his mid 20s was detained in Moscow earlier today in connection with the latest blast.
The incident comes five days after a suicide bomb attack killed 16, including the two bombers, at an open-air rock festival and sparked fears of a bombing campaign by Chechen separatists.
10 ИЮЛЯ 14:18
