Attacks on Metros
Like airports, shopping malls or other places where lots of people gather, subway systems can be vulnerable targets for terrorist attacks.
Unfortunately, the potential danger of terrorist attacks on metro systems persists, but probability theory proves that chances to get involved are extremely low, considering the sheer number of passengers (more than 1 billion annually in London, for instance). Compared to driving an automobile, using the metro is a much safer option.
The most serious attacks on metros have been:
- Minsk, 11 April 2011: 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured in an explosion at Oktyabrskaya station. The two suspects arrested did not claim any political motives [wikipedia.org].
- Moscow, 29 March 2010: In the morning, Moscow's metro was hit by suicide bombings, killing 38 people and injuring 60. The blasts were perpetrated my militant Muslims from the North Caucasus region [bbc.co.uk], [wikipedia.org].
- Mumbai (Bombay), 11 July 2006: Seven bombs detonated in first-class compartments of the local suburban railway and resulted in 207 dead and 714 injured. An eighth bomb could be defused. Lashkar-e-Qahhar, an Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility [wikipedia.org].
- London, 7 July 2005: Islamic suicide bombers set off explosions on three underground trains and one bus almost simultaneously, resulting in 52 dead and 700 injured [wikipedia.org]. This was followed by four attempted bomb attacks two weeks later with only one person injured.
- Madrid, 11 March 2004: Ten explosions in four Cercanias suburban metro trains killed 191 people and wounded 1460. Islamic extremists were found to be responsible [wikipedia.org].
- Moscow, 6 February 2004: An Islamic suicide bomber from Karachay-Cherkessia (a republic in the Russian Federation) killed 42 and wounded 250 on a line 2 metro train [wikipedia.org].
- Daegu, 18 February 2003: 198 people died and 147 were injured after a 56 year-old unemployed man set fire to a subway train at Jungangno station in order to kill himself [wikipedia.org].
- Paris, 25 July 1995: An Islamic Algerian terrorist group carried out several attacks with exploding gas bottles in Paris. On July 25, 1995, eight were killed and 80 wounded in the Saint-Michel station of RER line B. On October 6, in metro station Maison Blanche, 13 were wounded. On October 17, between the Musée d'Orsay and Saint-Michel - Notre-Dame stations of RER line C, 29 were wounded [wikipedia.org].
- Tokyo, 20 March 1995: The Aum cult sect released sarin, a chemical warfare gas, on several Tokyo subway trains, causing 12 fatal casualties and 5000 injured [cfrterrorism.org], [wikipedia.org].
- Baku, 19 March and 3 July 1994: A separatist movement from the Islamic Lezghian ethnic group perpetrated two bombings in metro stations. The first attack killed 14 people and wounded 49. The second attack resulted in 13 killed and 42 injured [wikipedia.org].
- Moscow, 8 January 1977: A bomb went off in a crowded line 3 train between two stations. Together with two other bombs in grocery stores roughly half an hour later, 7 people were killed and 37 injured. The KGB arrested dissidents for the attacks, while other theories state that the bombings might have been arranged by the KGB itself to discredit the Soviet dissident movement [wikipedia.org].
Updated 25 Nov 2012.
This page: http://mic-ro.com/metro/attacks.html
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