if you just joined us a very warm welcome this is coming to you live from the russian capital our breaking news this hour up to thirty five people have been killed by a terrorist explosion at moscow's domodedovo airport the busiest in the country. more than one hundred sixty others were injured by the blast in the international arrivals hall it's a low security area often filled with waiting family members and taxi drivers forty

people are said to be in a critical condition to british citizens and to be among those killed police suspect a suicide bomber is to blame but don't yet know whether it was a man or woman or what nationality they were in the investigators are studying the c.c.t.v. footage shown it's thought the moment of the explosion was caught on camera and to be to recreate it was one of the extra security at all of moscow's airports and railway stations to be increased planes are continuing to land and take off at domodedovo airport. well let's get the latest from emma she is at the arena tell us what's happening there and i'll just a few of them off to the suspected suicide bomber struck. well at this point as you can imagine the president it's a curative measures are in place there are hundreds of police officers inside that building inside the terminal when we arrived here the first thing that we noticed of course was the fact that the planes were coming and going because right after the blast of course the airport there weren't there was information distributed

that airport was going to shut down completely that did not happen and of course you can imagine that in the hours that just a few hours after the moments after the blast chaos and panic of course were prevailing at the terminal and we did speak to some eyewitnesses who told us about the horrors that were happening here immediately following the blast let's have a listen to what they had to say. someone detonated an explosive device that was either in luggage or a suicide note lost a suitcase was on fire and a person had his back to me so the explosive devices are the only it's personal in a suitcase i don't know what he looked like he was dressed in black and standing with his back to me glossary me three meters back and i stood up everyone was running towards the exit panicking there was a lot of black smoke and the lights went out i went for medical check out at first i thought i had a wound on my head but it turned out i just had someone else's blood on me i mean when it's not you can't see anything at the scene of the last it's all kind you

don't and the investigators are working that you can't see anything that's up there's a distinctive smell in the air. wherever there were. they didn't there were three storm. i didn't understand what this is and then my parents start to call me and i realize what happened. it's a fuller when i arrive so i so only when i. leave the room from. blood on the floor and people in the back of all the plants working so i didn't mean a moment of explosion but the. right to. rise work for board there was no panic in terminal so i realized only when i've been in the car and my

friends start to call me. we were going to do around four thirty pm which could. be twenty minutes or so. and we were right to the door of the aircraft was open. it was the guy entering the airplane we have an emergency at the airport. everybody should. everybody. because your mom started. shooting right next to me got a call from her what is right. here. told me that he was right. from the explosion. he was not injured and he was a doctor and he heard helping people injured. iona cafe at

domodedovo airport one of my colleagues was taken to hospital she's in intensive care the cost happened in the arrivals area that's the next wing of the airport the explosion must have been very strong because our cafes about one hundred meters from the arrivals area and when we had the blast plaster started pulling from the ceiling. and of course these are the stories that we were that you've been hearing we've been hearing from people who were here since the very beginning of the blast in fact of course there were shows of tremendous courage and people coming together because immediately after the blast those who were working at cafes and shops in the near the arrivals area where the blast is still thought to be detonated all of those people working there actually came to help came to the aid of those who were helping the airport staff who was evacuating the injured and taking out the bodies of the killed the old came together and they tried to help but of course unfortunately not all stories are as a positive as this one we also know that there had been reports about taxi drivers

for taking as much as three to. five hundred dollars to those who wanted to leave from the airport the airport and go to moscow fortunately though however not everybody was looking to cash in on this tragedy there were also reports of people who were offering free rides to from the airports from the airport to moscow also a train service from the don't do their airports in moscow is always also free of charge following the explosion but there were people standing outside this terminal earlier saying that they're willing to give a lift to anybody who needs it because they know that these are desperate times and desperate measures naturally at this point investigators are still inside still working trying to put together pieces of the puzzle trying to solve this trying to solve the clues as to who and how could have carried out these a blast and this is what the investigative committee officials have to say about this matter. because of what the police only seeing at the scene the

explosion in the international arrivals who. is suspected of carrying out the attack. and of course also there was a lot of work done by the police you have to imagine that they did have to evacuate all these people from the airport we're talking hundreds of people we came here the area the parking lot was completely clear of all cars other than emergency vehicles and you had a lot of was there was a tremendous police presence at the scene it's still here there were representatives from russia's federal security services from special task force of the police sniffer dogs going around obviously still looking for any traces of explosions that could need traces of explosives which could have been left over in the building but that of course was cleared now you have to remember that the blast

is thought to have occurred at the arrivals area at the international arrivals area before this is. splosion before today people who are coming to meet and greet those who are arriving or able to proceed all the way down to the arrivals area this is definitely not the case now all of the ones all of the ones who are coming into to meet people at the airport are now forced to stand at the departure so they're not being allowed to wards the area where the explosion has occurred and that of course partly because of the investigation and also because of the security measures people are actually building up in queues right at the entrance of the airport because all of their luggage and not just luggage even handbags everything is being checked i mean i had to present my cell phone when we went into the terminal just several minutes before i came live to be with you here they actually also are starting to prohibit filming inside the airport that measure has been put in place about an hour ago so no filming crews are allowed to do any of their work inside

the airport that is yet another strict security measure that is being put in place we also know that mayor civilian was also on hand he was also present here at the airport meeting obviously with the airport officials and with the investigative committee who came in shortly after the blast we saw them come in we also saw them proceed towards the the international arrivals area where the blast occurred and then they. then they left that area we saw them going into a v.i.p.'s which is now been designated as a sort of sort of a camp for the investigators that's where the are right now and they're still in that building obviously they have they're probably looking at an entire night of work cut out for them as they're trying to put all the pieces of this puzzle together as they're trying to figure out who won and why were behind this horrific tragedy at russia's busiest airport on a monday afternoon. thanks very much indeed for that update from ford well

president should have held an emergency meeting to discuss the response to the blast therefore he's also delayed his trip to the world economic forum in the swiss city of davos where he was trying to make a keynote speech earlier i spoke about the government's response to this tragedy. the president. as you said canceled his search i delayed his trip to the the divorce economic forum where he was going to be the keynote speaker and he also recently had this meeting with the prosecutor general investigative committee and also the russian transport ministry where they outlined really their immediate priorities the immediate priorities that he highlighted. first of all to get on to the people who who are behind this attack who planned it in his words to be hot on their heels also really to provide immediate assistance to the people on the ground medical and psychological help if your if those people are in hospital oversee

medical help if they weren't actually wounded physically then also need psychological counseling if they're traumatized from this bombing also he extended his condolences to those people are affected by the attack the russian prime minister vladimir putin also spoke to the health minister saying that those people will be will get compensation and recommending the health minister visit them in person the president earlier spoke after this meeting and more just to hear some of the things he had to say there. the explosion in domodedovo took people's lives are spoken to the health minister and the emergencies minister those injured in the explosion will receive all necessary aid i express my condolences to the families of those killed extra security will be put in place in all airports roee stations and transport hubs a special investigation group will be set up to look into the incident we need to

look at what's happened in the immediate aftermath and for security on transport we've recently approved a number of laws on that we need to check that those laws are working because what happened shows not all of those rulings are being properly applied we have to look into bat the most important thing at the moment is to support the victims and their families. the laws to which president medvedev are referring is referring there are laws passed after last year's march metro bombings and the earlier bombing of the netsky express train on its way to certain petersburg in both cases extra laws were added to russia's antiterrorism legislation but as he said those laws are either not being adhered to properly or are in need of some adjustment and they'll have to be scrutinized to see how they actually work in practice also of note was the fact that the moscow's mayor and also the regional governor of the moscow region made

a very swift public response to go to the scenes the hospitals and the airport to show leadership on the ground and to be at the center of the decision making process as the president said in his in his address really. it's a matter of public transport safety all public transport hubs have had security massively stepped up especially the other airports but also here in the center of moscow i'm pretty close to the kremlin now in the head of the federal security service there's a visibly heightened police presence on the streets here. it is reminiscent of the increased police presence after the moscow metro bombings which only happened under under a year ago and so the atmosphere of would it be vigilance really a lot of increased vigilance now from the security services. tom botton talking to

me a little earlier from the center of moscow when at least sixty people have been taken to hospitals across the russian capital many of them are in a critical condition going to be that side of. life that you've got what do we know about those who have been lost. all the numbers are quite striking i might saw it might say because out of the sixty people around sixty people which have been hospitalized half of them is thought to be in critical condition in total it's thought that at least a hundred and sixty people were injured in this attack and of course at least thirty five people who lost their lives in this blast the injured were dispersed that hospitals across moscow and also at several clinics in the moscow region were getting news that they may be transferred to a bigger federal clinics in the city to provide all the proper and needed medical assistance another point is that this attack happened at around four thirty pm

which means that while these ambulances were transporting the injured to hospitals they. were met by the first hours of the evening traffic jam in moscow and the police were squatting this these ambulances to be able to to reach hospitals in the nearest future and as soon as possible also we're getting reports that foreign suitors that citizens may also have been affected by this attack including an intel you and a french and a serb citizen they are reported to be to have been injured in the attack and also there are reports from investigators that two british citizens were killed in this explosion however the british embassy is still checking these reports hotlines have also been opened both for psychological help and for a blood transfer and psychologist are also working at the airport itself since. many people were fact. by this explosion not only. in the area of the blast itself

but judging by the hundreds of the reports currently flooding the internet and you've got other media in russia everybody who was at the building of the airport at the time of the explosion really felt it. even to you were describing just how difficult it was for the emergency services to cope with the particular timing of this incident four thirty in the afternoon the start of moscow's rush hour which is notorious as we all know but generally what is the feeling on how the emergency services coped with this incident. well this is on one hand this is something which is yet to be analyzed because the attack itself occurred to just several hours ago. the real analysis of the situation is yet to come but again judging by all of the reports from the eyewitnesses themselves the security services the police were able to evacuate everybody from the area of the blast point quickly the

ambulances were able to reach the airport quickly because possibly because they were exported supported by the police there was no panic also reported according to these reports everything was done quite calmly and perhaps because of that no more casualties happened this is quite important in these types of situations that situations that there is no panic about just finally you mention a very interesting point about the emotional effects of this people being caught up in the trauma. by this incident you said that psychological help is on the way but clearly a lot of foreigners a lot of people have just flown into the country what about the communication element are people aware that just because they haven't been harmed physically they could of course be harmed seriously traumatically how are they to know that this sort of psychology and help is is there for them. this is quite an

interesting question since. the psychology of a person in the way that a person can only find out if he was affected or not by a trauma just at the time of the vented self so many people may actually realize that they have been traumatized by this explosion maybe several days after or even several weeks after but the officials are saying that they are ready to provide all the medical and psychological assistance to help them these hotlines again have been opened everything it seems that they're trying to do. our trying to do everything to help everybody affected be made to be expressive shereen which is which transports passengers from the central moscow airport free of charge at the moment so that people and relatives of the people the victims and the injured could get in and out of the airport as easily as possible and again this is also a psychological factor just getting out of the airport. may also be quite difficult

especially with traffic and everything so it seems that the psychological factors and definitely one of the most important ones that the officials are going to be worrying about even if israel thanks very much indeed you go to port and there outside one of the many hospitals that are receiving the the casualties from the incident going to happen thanks even more from eagle probably a little later in the day. but just to remind you talking about those casualties we can now confirm that official say one hundred sixty eight have been injured and thirty five have been killed in today's incident at the moment of airport well earlier i spoke to both from the institute of globalization and social movements who says the way airports are organized gives terrorists a good opportunity to strike. the way airports all denies it is actually increasing the risk of terrorist attacks not diminishing it because. the control of the crowd

of the airports is done it's creating bottlenecks it's creating tough crowds of people which are very very easy targets for terrorist attacks and it's really impressive that nothing happened like that so far were the world or in russia because i think that airport security is not about providing safety and security of the passengers so far all terrorist attacks were targeted people were targeted at those people traveling by metro and they were targeted at people who were not really important for the first time you know have an attack which was targeted at people whose closs level was kind of a bit higher middle class or maybe even off of middle class people and that is absolutely new to russian terrorism. but that will only respect to. the security measures taken in most cases second busiest airport. taking going through the check in and having your luggage checked that's taking a lot longer now as

a measures are being stepped you've also seen the troll stuff around the airport grounds with dogs so it is noticeable you can see we've spoken to the security staff and they said that they've got the highest security level in place now all this stuff are on high alert they've been extra vigilant checking the luggage and they've got people monitoring the c.c.t.v. extremely closely doesn't this the monitor usually anyway monitor actually place with the. top of the dummy data and i will be speaking to people on the ground in the airport trying to get a feel there's certainly no panic at the moment but people who are traveling today it's to be anxious about what's happening i wanting to know as much information as possible certainly about their safety in the circles as we're going to be in part where we understand the despite of planes still leaving and arriving you don't with the roar and the planes being diverted to show it to appear so what's the impact

there on the b. overcoat with extra capacity. we had share much of that today saying that they were ready to take the extra flights are we going to be diverted from to the date of now is actually spoken to share with press service just a little while ago you know what they told us was that actually there weren't that many flights diverted to share much of those about a thirty minute gap when flights were restricted from coming into domodedovo airport and that's actually now according to show that the president has been lifted so the flights are returning to normal on the dead of a kid they said that was they will find some sneakers the airport ever see some of these diverted flights as well as st petersburg airports and to nizhni novgorod to the people who were expecting to london mosque a today now landing quite far out of that city and they'll be looking to face a least a four hour train ride the high welling's this school some destruction share much of as he. ready to take on the extra capacity the extra people if necessary but

what we're hearing at the moment if it looks like they start to flies perhaps will be necessary and he will. tell us so what's the atmosphere there amongst passengers because clearly the capitol is in a state of alert. nervousness tension there or almost people like we saw over a year ago after the most two or metro bombings getting on with life as usual what is the situation the. book people are understandably nervous anxious when they hear this nice they actually stuff on the ground have done a really great job every assuring people as best they can and keeping them as informed as they possibly can of what's going on out there we actually think that some of the people in the airports some of them knew what was happening some of them were just finding out as we were talking to the so we could hear some of their reactions and. the most important thing is people safety i'm a little scared but there's nothing i can do have to go in there there's no other

way home. you know what happened when we have been i really want to know what happened and they want to talk to my parents now because i think they're very worried now bert i don't they keep going to change. coming to school. i was supposed to fly from shooting me to go but now i'm leaving from domodedovo airport i'm not scared here and i don't have any other troops there what has been interesting to know in the comparison is welty the bombing last year is a real resilience of people they're not going to be terrorized by these people by these attacks are they getting on with things as best as they can to see that the stuff that we try to keep things running is effectively and smoothly and emphasizing that the main priority at the moment is continuing to ensure that they've every mission in place to ensure the safety of the passages coming in and out of the. surface donna summits among them based expert on terrorism and conflict

resolution told me earlier that there are similarities between this attack and others carried out by terrorists from russia's restive north caucuses. well obviously the first impression is that this is. similar to others that have taken place in moscow in recent years and the all indications are that this is part of the insurgency going on in the north caucasus so unless we hear. of. other suspects i think it's natural to suspect that it's people from the involved to the insurgency the north caucasus that are behind it we must keep in mind. the insurgency in the north caucuses. now has connections with other terrorist groups in the middle east and in other parts of the world so we are probably seeing yet another outrage yet another attack against innocent civilians on the same pattern

as happened in new york in london and paris and in other parts of the world. of course the insurgency in the north caucasus has domestic moods and. there are causes for it that are local but in the end this is in my view part of much wider international met to. peace loving people everywhere in the world well earlier my colleague expect your political analyst dimitri which in cross talk and political commentator peter divel and they said it's not easy to intimidate russia through attacks such as this. people getting back to doing their daily lives here unfortunately we do have these kind of attacks because people are not intimidated by them life will go on as tragic as this event is today number two russian afghanistan warmed up relations in the last few days soon don't discount that as somebody sending

a signal because you know they've been very good at getting rid of the coalition of the willing america's willing partners in afghanistan russia has made a sweet little baby step there to work on the drugs trade but you know it's you know that could be a doctor we could be connecting and my point is this is outside funding these are people outside funding these people training people in many cases or training people to train other people and outside and it's extremely well documented western media doesn't like to do that angle because it makes russia look like it can't deal with the north caucuses and all that has a lot of problems down there who would want to have to deal with the kind of a social breakdown that we've had in many cases we need investment there's unemployment there's actually discrimination poor governance i would say in many ways but there is an initiative and has been initiative to deal with that issue but still we have this why did they come to the world capital why to send a message to keep the training going and keep the money coming in from the outside and this is something that russia is very well aware of and i agree with demons he

started out here there's still a lot of locals here if you look around you know they still have a lot of work to do to stay calm about this kind of activity some loopholes perhaps but certainly security when you when you see it at the metro the airport security is always a far as i'm concerned very impressive but you drew or you draw the focus down to the north caucuses here dimitri is peter do you think it's corrected enjoy pointing the finger of blame at that area. if as i said the news that that there are a couple of committed suicide bomb but are going for that all because of the. track will be the first or the number one triple investigation since it's such a huge city you just cannot bring it to a standstill even by a major terrorist act. i would get you on what. peter has said before you know of sidebar and then see if. the terrorist. source is a pariah. i think the western audience shouldn't step ladder states or the european

union we're not can see the russia part of the west what for us one was terrorist russia is a part of. this and we have to use you have terrorism somewhere it's not your domestic issue it's a global issue and i would like to add that it's like the weakest link is this to leave the west it's dangerous and difficult to strike to strike at israel israel's thought tighten security it's very difficult to strike the united states it's a bit easier to straighten europe but europe gets very easily but in russia because it's such a it's basically a new state and it's a poor syria who is a very porous they're all sort of communities here saw it's just easier to strike a treasure but the problem with russia for these people the terrorist is that russia is not so easily intimidated for example spain in spain the terrorists immediately had a positive effect on their actions.