At least 35 people were killed and more than 130 injured on Monday in a suicide bombing at Russia's biggest airport, an airport spokeswoman said.
The blast ripped through the baggage claim area at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, Russia's largest in terms of passenger traffic, at 13:32 GMT (21:32 Beijing time).
Smoke wafted out of the baggage claim area and people were seen running out of the emergency exits at the airport, local media reported.
Eyewitnesses who spoke to Russian radio described a scene of carnage after the blast ripped through the baggage claims section.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a special security regime across the country's transport hubs following the blast. He described the blast as "an act of terror".
"It is necessary to introduce a special regime in all airports and transportation hubs," Medvedev told an emergency meeting of top transportation officials.
"The explosion went off in the international arrivals hall," the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.
Initial casualty figures were contradictory.
Interfax earlier put the death toll at 31, quoting an official with the health ministry. But ITAR-TASS said about 20 people had been killed.
A spokeswoman for prosecutors put the number of casualties at about 20.
"According to preliminary information, the explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber," ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed security source as saying.
"Burned people are running about ... they are carrying pieces of flesh on stretchers," said one eyewitness, named as Andrei, who was standing near the information stand at the airport.
"Something terrible is happening there. Tens of people are being dragged out on stretchers, on trolleys," he told City FM radio.
"People are on stretchers, some being carried, there are wounded, people covered in blood," a passenger named as Nadezhda told the radio.
"You can't tell the living from the dead. I was meeting someone. We are not protected in this country," another witness, Alexei, told the radio.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been informed of the incident, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.
Moscow police on Monday stepped up security across the city after the blast, Interfax quoted law enforcement officials as saying.
The Russian capital has been repeatedly rocked by attacks over the last years blamed on militants from its overwhelmingly Muslim northern Caucasus region.
Questions:
1. What time (GMT) did the blast occur?
2. How many people were confirmed dead?
3. What was the source of the explosion?
Answers:
1. 13:32 GMT.
2. 35.
3. A Suicide bomber.
(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)
Todd Balazovic is a reporter for the Metro Section of China Daily. Born in Mineapolis Minnesota in the US, he graduated from Central Michigan University and has worked for the China Daily for one year.