Updated: Moscow Metro Explosions Kill at Least 37 People

At least 37 people have been killed by two explosions which hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, according to BBC.

The first blast went off in the central Lubyanka station at 0756 (0356 GMT). Police said the dead included 14 people inside a train and 11 on the platform. The second explosion occurred about 40 minutes later at the Park Kultury (at 0838 – 0438 GMT) station, where 12 people were killed.

Authorities in the capital have declared it a "terrorist" incident. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Moscow says no one has yet claimed responsibility, but the explosions do appear to have been coordinated.

Moscow's metro is one of the most-used underground railways in the world, carrying some 5.5 million passengers a day. Suspicion is likely to fall on groups in the troubled North Caucasus region, where the authorities are fighting Islamist militants.

Ministry of Emergency Situations spokesperson Irina Andrianova said the first explosion tore through the second carriage of a train as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), adding that rescuers of the Moscow emergencies department and firefighters are now working at the site.

Prosecutors in the capital told the Russian Interfax news agency that initial reports indicated both of the explosions were suicide bombings and that they were coordinated by female terrorists.

Russian forces have scored a series of successes against militants in recent weeks. In February, at least 20 insurgents were reportedly killed in an operation by Russian security forces in Ingushetia.

There was a major attack on the Moscow Metro in February 2004, when at least 39 people were killed by a bomb on a packed train as it approached the Paveletskaya Metro station. Six months later, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a station, killing 10 people. Both attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels, who had targeted the capital in the past.