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Moscow Metro Bombing: Security Tightened for American Mass Transit

Locations in this article:  Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL London, England Madrid, Spain Moscow, Russia Philadelphia, PA

St. Basil's Cathedral - Moscow, RussiaIn response to a pair of bloody suicide bombings that shook the Moscow subway system Monday, police in New York City and Washington are doubling their security efforts.

Though there is no information that ties the Moscow attacks to al Qaeda, New York police have dispatched a fleet of critical response units to patrol busy mass transit locations such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station.

Police in Washington, meanwhile, have sent bomb-sniffing dogs to Washington, DC, metro stations and railways.

Security measures have also been implemented in transit systems in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

The Moscow bombing are said to be the most deadly attacks to have hit the capital city in six years. Two female suicide bombers set off explosions in key stations of the city during the peak of morning rush hour.

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Moscow Metro MapThe first explosion hit a metro train stopped at Park Kultury station, one of the city’s cultural centers. The second blast, 40 minutes later, exploded at Lubyanka, a station located under the Federal Security Bureau’s headquarters, the Russian security hub (and successor to the KGB).

At present 38 people have been reported dead and more than 60 others are reported injured.

Public transportation systems have been under intense scrutiny in the last few years following a string of terrorist bombings in Europe. In 2004, a series of coordinated bombings in Madrid, Spain killed 191 people. An attack on the London underground and buses killed 52 people in 2005.

Last month, Najibullah Zazi, a Afghan immigrant from Queens, NY, pleaded guilty to a 2009 plot to bomb the New York subway system. It would have been the worst terrorist attack on the United States since 2001.

By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related links: Reuters, Associated Press, Washington Post

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