Two explosions in Moscow subway system during Monday morning rush hour, killing at least 35 people and injuring 40 others, were caused by female suicide bombers, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed.

Female bombers cause catastrophe

A police source cited by the RIA Novosti news agency said: "Parts of the body founded at the scene allow us to say that it was a woman."

The two subway blasts that rocked Moscow's Lubyanka and Cultural Park stations were equivalent to 2-3 kg of TNT each, said Moscow prosecutor Yuri Semin.

Semin said "the explosive device was tied to a suicide bomber" in the first blast.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said the blast which struck the Lubyanka station at around 7:52 a.m. local time (0352 GMT) killed 23 people and injured 20 others, and at least 12 people were killed and 20 others injured in the second blast that hit the Cultural Park subway station at 8:41 a.m. (0441 GMT), the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Xinhua reporters earlier reported from the scene that traffic around the two subway stations have been blocked by dozens of ambulances and vehicles of investigators. A helicopter was helping evacuate the injured.

Both stations are on subway "redline" that runs through central Moscow, which has now been shut down.

"The police have tightened control in the Moscow subway, train stations and other crowded areas, and stricter identification check has been imposed," head of the chief administration of internal affairs, Viktor Biryukov, said.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said traffic on the closed metro line would be fully restored by 01:00 p.m. (0900 GMT).

Seventy ambulances and two rescue teams were evacuating the injured, said the Health Care and Social Development Ministry.

Most of the injured were "in critical conditions," said an official from the Moscow municipal government. The victims, mostly young people, were sent to seven hospitals around the city, a police source said.