Russia warned of airport attack: Reports

A wounded blast victim is brought by rescuers to a hospital from Domodedovo airport in Moscow. -- PHOTO: AP

MOSCOW - RUSSIAN security services had received warnings that an attack was planned at a Moscow airport, reports said on Monday after a blast killed at least 35 people at the city's largest air hub Domodedovo.

'The special services had received information that an act of terror would be carried out at one of the Moscow airports,' a security source told the RIA Novosti news agency.

'Agents were seeking three suspects but they managed to access the territory of the airport, witness the explosion which their accomplice carried out and then leave the airport,' the source said. The suspects most likely brought the suicide bomber to the airport in a car that they parked in the long-term car park, the source said.

'A tip-off with a warning that something was being prepared appeared one week before the explosion,' an airport security source told the Lifenews.ru website. 'Even the place, by the customs, was named.' 

The source complained that the airport had cut numbers of security staff by half in recent months, and alleged corruption within the airport police, saying they spent their time soliciting bribes from migrants.

'All the police did was fleece people flying in from Central Asia,' the source claimed. The blast took place in the international arrivals hall where passengers are met, just after the customs control.

An airport spokesman confirmed it was a free access zone that does not require a boarding pass or a special badge to enter. The bombing could have been a second attempt, after a woman died in Moscow last year while apparently preparing an explosive device, a law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency. -- AFP