CBS | Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 30, the city's mayor and other officials said.

Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Chumikova said 23 people were killed at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.

A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later. Chumikova said at least 12 were dead there.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said both explosions were believed to have been set off by female suicide bombers as the trains entered the stations. In the first case, officials said the explosion was on the train; there was no immediate information on the location of the second blast.

In a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, the head of the FSB said a preliminary investigation pointed to terrorists connected to the restive northern Caucasus region that includes Chechnya.

Alexander Bortnikov said the assessment was based on fragments of the bombers' bodies. He did not elaborate.

According to analysts with the Washington area-based group IntelCenter, the group most likely behind Monday's blasts was the Caucasus Emirate, which had recently "demonstrated capability to conduct this type of attack and expressed intent."

IntelCenter said the group, headed by Doku Umarov, released statements in late 2009 and February of this year warning Russians that, "This war will reach the homes of each of you. It has already reached your homes. And trains that explode today are only the beginning. Planes will be blown up at your end, and war will be unleashed on your streets."

A profile of Umarov on the BBC's Web site says the powerful Chechen warlord has been accused by Russia's security forces of being behind the 2004 school siege in Beslan, which resulted in hundreds of deaths.

 

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"The Russians do not understand that the war today is coming to their streets, the war is coming to their homes, the war is coming to their cities," Umarov is quoted as saying in the statement released by IntelCenter. "They do not think that the war is coming, that it is going on only on television somewhere far away in the Caucasus and that the war does not concern them, but we plan, God willing to prove to them that the war is coming to their homes."

"The first data that the FSB has given us is that there were two female suicide bombers," Luzhkov told reporters at the Park Kultury site.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that the blasts struck in the very heart of Moscow, with about 45 minutes between explosions. The Lubyanka station is just blocks from the Kremlin.

President Obama, still aboard Air Force One after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, released a one-paragraph statement expressing his condolences to the victims and condemning the attacks in Moscow.

"The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts," read the White House statement.

Local reports said the two bombers had been identified on security video from the stations, reports Palmer, and two other suspects seen with the women were being sought for questioning.

CBS News' Svetlana Berdnikova reports that police stepped up patrols around Moscow's subway stations following Monday's attacks, including stop-and-search checks of random civilians.

Monday's blasts revived anti-Muslim sentiments in Moscow, aimed primarily at migrants from the former Soviet republics, says Berdnikova.

A Russian radio station said two women who appeared to be from the Caucus region, wearing Muslim headscarfs, were beaten up inside a subway car by other passengers. Other people traveling in the same car reportedly stood by and watched without intervening.

The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.

Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels.

The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around 7 million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.

The blasts practically paralyzed movement in the city center as emergency vehicles sped to the stations. Helicopters hovered over the Park Kultury station area, which is near the renowned Gorky Park.

Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over "This is how we live!"

At least a dozen ambulances were on the scene.