At Least Five Killed in Moscow Blast

A Mercedes sedan blew up near Moscow's Red Square today, killing at least five people and injuring three, Moscow police said.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency initially reported that the explosion, in Moscow's main shopping street, had been caused by a female suicide bomber. Police later said it was not clear whether the blast was due to a terrorist act or a business dispute that had turned violent.

The blast occurred on the capital's main shopping street, Tverskaya, near the National hotel just outside Red Square.

Ambulances rushed to the scene, where a further seven people were treated on the spot for minor injuries, Itar-Tass said.

Windows on the first and second floor of the hotel were shattered, Moscow police said.

Investigators from the police and the federal security service were at the scene, trying to determine whether the blast occurred inside or outside the car, they said.

Two witnesses told Russian state television that they heard a huge bang shortly before 11am local time (0800 GMT).

Television pictures showed images from the area, which was filled with the wail of car alarms.

The police said that many businesses had offices in the hotel and that the explosion might have been linked to them. Contract murders occur frequently in Russia's large cities.

But the Interfax news agency said police sources thought that the blast was a terrorist act and was caused by a car bomb. It said a headless female body was lying near the site of the blast, near a black briefcase that authorities thought might contain more explosives. Itar-Tass said that an undetonated explosive had been found on the bomber's body.

There has recently been a series of explosions, blamed on Chechen terrorists, in Moscow and southern Russia. Forty-four people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a train in southern Russia last week. Altogether, nearly 300 people have been killed in suspected Chechen attacks in Russia over the past year.

A suicide lorry-bomb attack last December destroyed the headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government and killed 72 people, and another killed 60 at a government compound in the region in May. Later that month, a woman blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 people.

In June, a female suicide attacker detonated a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a big staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya, killing at least 16 people. Fifty people, including soldiers wounded in Chechnya, were killed in a truck-bomb attack on a military hospital in the same town in August.

Today's attack came as the final results from Russia's parliamentary elections indicated a victory for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.

The elections, which were criticised by independent observers for failing to meet international standards of democracy, also showed a massive defeat for the Communist party.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe condemned the use of the Russian state apparatus and media to promote President Putin's party, describing the elections as a "regression in the democratisation process in Russia".

Closing projections suggest United Russia will win 50% of the seats in parliament, giving President Putin more than the two-thirds majority he needs to change the constitution and perhaps gain a third term as president. The Communists saw their share of the vote halved to around 12%, a disastrous showing that suggests its historic power is at an end.