Moscow market bomb linked to crime

A bomb thought to be linked to organised crime tore through a crowded Moscow market yesterday, killing 10 people and sending rubble down on morning shoppers.

Russian television said 35 people remained in hospital hours after the blast at part of the popular Cherkizovsky market where Asian goods were on sale. Six were in serious condition.

Interfax news agency quoted Svetlana Petrenko, press officer for Moscow prosecutor's office, as saying the dead included five Chinese nationals and one Vietnamese. Citizenship of the others was not known immediately as they had no documents on them.

Prosecutors said the attack was probably linked to a dispute between competing commercial groups, though terrorism could not be ruled out.

Moscow's chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin said the blast was caused by a home-made bomb of a force equivalent to up to 1.2 kg of TNT explosive.

"We are not excluding that it was a terrorist attack... (but) most likely it was a business or criminal settling of scores that was behind the explosion," he told reporters.

Mr Syomin said the bomb may also have caused a nearby gas canister to explode. Earlier reports had suggested a gas leak was to blame.

Police detained two people on suspicion of involvement in the bombing, news reports said. Interfax, quoting law enforcement officials, said two suspects, in their teens or early 20s, denied any connection with the blast.

The blast in the Cherkizovsky market - where low prices lure many bargain hunters - shattered the "Eurasia" section, a packed maze of stalls in an east Moscow suburb dominated by traders from China, Vietnam and ex-Soviet Central Asia.

The area is made up of rows of shipping containers stacked on top of each other with a makeshift roof covering the space between them. Traders hawk everything from shoes and clothes to spices and freshly gutted fish. Initial reports suggested eight were killed, but the Emergencies Ministry said two people died in hospital.

"It was terrible - I saw puddles of blood, it was literally everywhere. One body was without a head," said one Central Asian trader, who gave his name as Alik. His white t-shirt was spattered with blood.