MOSCOW (AFP) - Ten people have been killed and 41 injured after an explosion ripped through an Asian market in Moscow in what officials called a settling of scores between criminal groups. The explosion struck the two-story shopping pavilion at about 10:30 am, destroying 200 square meters (2,150 square feet) of stalls and tearing a 100-square-meter hole in the market's roof, news agencies reported on Monday.Nuriya, a 37-year-old shoe vendor, said he had seen the market's roof "fly away.I realized right away that it had been an explosion because of the smell of powder," said Nuriya, who asked that his family name be withheld. People started to scream and flee the pavilion."
There was chaos at the scene as a fire burned at the explosion site and merchants fled with carts of goods, initially blocking rescue vehicles from reaching the market. Eight people died at the scene as a result of the blast and two more died at hospitals from their injuries, a spokeswoman for the emergency situations ministry said, adding that 41 other wounded had been hospitalized. Two of the dead were children, the spokeswoman said.
As to the cause of the blast, "the most likely hypothesis is that the explosion was motivated by commercial competition or a dispute between criminal groups," Moscow prosecutor Yury Semin told journalists at a briefing near the explosion site. "The explosion took place between two containers which were located in the closed shopping pavilion... It is clear that initially a bomb exploded, and a gas explosion then followed," Semin said.
Moscow Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin also said the blast appeared to have been "intentional" and caused by a homemade bomb, Interfax reported. Officials and witnesses at the scene had initially attributed the blast, which Semin said had killed eight people and wounded 41, to an exploding gas container.
Nuriya said ambulances arrived at the scene around half an hour after the explosion occurred.
The Moscow prosecutor's office has opened a criminal investigation regarding the blast, and has not ruled out that it was a terrorist attack, Interfax reported.
Eight explosions have taken place at Russian markets since March 1999, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded. Such incidents are frequently attributed to disputes among criminal groups that are tied to the markets.