Moscow Tube bomb kills 50

At least 50 people were killed and 350 injured when a bomb exploded in a packed train carriage on the Moscow underground today.

The device, thought to have been carried onto the train by a woman suicide bomber, went off at the height of the rush hour as the train entered a tunnel on the city's circle line.

The train carried on for about 500 yards before coming to a halt. There was panic when a fire broke out. Passengers unable to open the doors smashed windows to get out.

Thick black smoke hampered rescue work as 700 commuters were led more than a mile along the line to safety. Inside the wrecked carriage, bodies coveredin soot sat side-by-side still in their seats. Elsewhere in the train bodies were lying among twisted metal and shredded seats.

Body parts were scattered all along the track.

More than 50 ambulances waited outside Paveletskaya station amid fears that the death toll could climb much higher.

Russian security services believe the blast was the latest in a series of atrocities by Chechen rebels who want an independent Muslim homeland.

There have been a series of suicide bombings in the city.

Such an attack deep in the London Underground is the "doomsday scenario" which has led to contingency plans being drawn up here.

Today's explosion at 8.30 local time destroyed the second carriage of the train when it was between Paveletskaya and Avtozavodskaya stations near the centre of Moscow.

Ilya Blokhin, 31, a doctor, who was in the train's next to last carriage, said she heard a sound like a firework going off.

She added: "There was a loud blast and a fire with smoke pouring through the tunnel."

An unidentified woman, blood covering her face, said that for a long time after the explosion, passengers were unable to open the door of their carriages. After finally prising open the door, she said they walked a long distance out of the tunnel. "It's scary to live here," said Galina Abramova, a passenger on a train that was going in the opposite direction.

Police immediately stopped all traffic on the metro network. It is thought many of the victims were workers on their way to the nearby Zil limousine car plant.

The majority of Russians are dependent on public transport and the spacious carriages are usually packed tight during rush hour. The elaborately decorated Stalin-era underground system is also one of the world's deepest.