Commuter train bombing kills dozens in Russia

YESSENTUKI, Russia - A shrapnel-filled bomb believed strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter train Friday near Chechnya, killing 42 people and wounding nearly 200 in what Russia's president called an attempt to disrupt parliamentary elections.

The blast near this city in southern Russia was the latest in a series of suicide bombings and other attacks that have foiled security measures and killed more than 275 people in and around the rebellious region of Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year.

The remains of the suspected bomber were found with grenades still attached to his legs, Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev said. Three women also were involved in the attack - two who jumped from the train just before the blast, and one who was gravely injured and unlikely to survive, he said.

The explosion tore through the train about 8 a.m., a rush-hour attack calculated to kill and injure as many people as possible. The train was 500 yards from the station at Yessentuki, 750 miles south of Moscow.

Thirty-five people died at the scene of the blast and seven others in hospitals, a Stavropol region emergency official said. He said authorities had identified 30 of the dead and 151 people remained hospitalized late Friday.

"We will find those who did it," said Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, calling the attackers "beasts" as his voice trembled. "The earth will burn under their feet."

President Vladimir Putin called the attack "an attempt to destabilize the situation in the country on the eve of parliamentary elections," which are Sunday.

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