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A woman has died in a clinic from wounds suffered in the double suicide bombing of the Moscow subway, officials said Tuesday, raising the death toll to 39 as the country entered a day of mourning.

Russians donate blood for the victims of the terrorist metro blasts at a Moscow clinic.

Five people remain in critical condition out of 71 hospitalized after the blasts that were blamed on Chechen rebels, city health department official Andrei Seltsovsky told the Rossiya-24 state news channel. Only eight victims had been formally identified, he said.

The preliminary investigation found that female suicide bombers detonated belts of explosives during the Monday morning rush-hour at two central Moscow subway stations. It was the first terrorist activity in the Russian capital for years.

Flags flew at half staff on Government buildings and at the Kremlin as a day of national mourning began. Entertainment events and shows on television were cancelled. Services were to be held at several churches.

Heightened transportation security remained in effect across the capital and in cities across Russia. Police with machine guns and sniffer dogs patrolled subway entrances.

Monday’s first explosion took place just before 8 am at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow, beneath the notorious headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s main successor agency. The FSB is a symbol of power under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who headed the agency before his election as president in 2000.

About 45 minutes later, a second blast hit the Park Kultury station on the same subway line, which is near the renowned Gorky Park. In both cases, the bombs were detonated as the trains pulled into the stations and the doors were opening.

Russian flags fly at half-mast over the Kremlin in Moscow on March 30, 2010 during a day of mourning for the victims of a terrorist bomb attack. Moscow held a day of mourning for the 39 people killed in a pair of underground suicide bombings as the Russian authorities faced pressure to prevent a resurgence of deadly militant attacks. AFP

Debate raged in the Russian media as to the exact motive for the attacks. Newspapers speculated that the blasts were retaliation for the recent killing of militant leaders in the North Caucasus by Russian police.

The armed militancy Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed to crush on his rise to power a decade ago sent the Kremlin a defiant message on Monday, carrying out Moscow’s worst attack in six years and highlighting the failures of Russia’s policy in it most turbulent region.

The response to two blasts that killed 39 people on the Moscow metro will be an important indicator of how Russia’s ruling tandem will approach violent unrest in the heavily Muslim North Caucasus, a crucial hurdle to the country’s security and success.

The attack could also play into political intrigue ahead of the Presidential Election in 2012, when Putin, still seen as Russia’s top leader after steering Dmitry Medvedev into the Kremlin in 2008, could seek a return to the Kremlin.

Candles and flowers surround the portrait of a victim of the terrorist metro blasts inside the Lubyanka metro station in Moscow

In a previous stint as Prime Minister, Putin led Russia into its second post-Soviet war against rebels in the North Caucasus province of Chechnya after a series of deadly apartment building bombings in Moscow and other cities.

Putin at one point vowed that rebels would be tracked down and killed even ‘in the outhouse’, typical of the tough talk that bolstered his popularity during his 2000-2008 Presidency.

“This is a direct affront to Vladimir Putin, whose entire rise to power was built on his pledge to crush the enemies of Russia,” Britain’s Royal United Services Institute Jonathan Eyal said of the bombings on Monday.

The Kremlin’s response could be tougher tactics against the North Caucasus militant groups that have tested the Kremlin’s counter-terrorism policies for a generation.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but officials steered suspicion toward the North Caucasus.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said the attacks were carried out by female suicide bombers, a method that has been used by Chechen rebels, and the Federal Security Service (FSB) chief said they were likely from the North Caucasus.

Rights groups say crackdowns in the turbulent region only fuel the anger that feeds the insurgency nearly a decade after the war Putin ousted Chechnya’s separatist Government. President Dmitry Medvedev has lately underscored a need to tackle underlying causes such as corruption, poverty and abuse of authority.

But Matthew Clements, Eurasia analyst at IHS Jane’s Information Group, said the attacks on Monday could strengthen the hand of the hard-liners in Russia’s ruling elite.

Rescue services and firefighters take care of victims from the Park Kultury metro station

That could lead to tougher tactics that “could involve a stepping away from the dual approach of pursuing social and economic development alongside security action.” Analysts also say more robust action could deter Muslim communities on the receiving end from providing the vital intelligence such a counter-insurgency campaign would need.

Frightened, frustrated but ultimately stoical, thousands of Russian commuters poured out of their capital’s metro on Monday after twin bombings caused carnage on the network’s busiest line.

As they emerged from at the height of the morning rush hour, Muskovites found traffic jams, taxi drivers doubling their prices, and a mobile phone system under severe strain.

Explosions triggered by female suicide bombers in trains at two central underground stations killed dozens in the worst attack on the Russian capital since February 2004.

“I’m scared. In Moscow we live like on a powder keg,” Yevgeniya Popova told Reuters television near the Lubyanka metro station, where the first blast hit shortly before 8.00am(0500GMT).

Many Muscovites simply soldiered on, looking for alternate routes to work. Some pressed cell phones to their ears as they tried to get through to explain they would be late, to do business, or to make sure loved ones were safe.

Next to Popova, a man in his thirties who was visiting Moscow frowned with frustration after half an hour trying in vain to reach his brother.

“I’m not scared, but I feel like we’re at war,” he said. “My only feeling is to take vengeance. On whom? I don’t know yet.

North Caucasus

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but security officials linked the attacks to the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency a decade after driving separatists from power in Chechnya.

A wounded man gives a phone call outside the Park Kultury metro station

“Maybe the rebels, maybe Chechnya. Someone is fighting someone. To be honest, I’m lost.” Ekho Moskvy radio said two women wearing Muslim-style headscarves were beaten by four or five passengers on a metro train after the bombings.

Russia is plagued by a strong undercurrent of bias against ethnic minorities from the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Russian media said security agencies were blocking mobile phone connections in the center of Moscow after reports that the bombs were detonated with the help of cellphones. But authorities later said the bombers had blown themselves up.

The second blast hit a metro train in the Park Kultury metro station some 40 minutes after the first explosion.

Both stations are on the red line, which runs close to the Kremlin and is one of the busiest in Moscow. Part of the line was closed and other lines were hit by delays, but the entire system was not shut down.

Announcements informed passengers of delays due to ‘technical reasons’, avoiding anything more specific.

A number of bomb blasts in Moscow in the late 1990s and early 2000s put residents on guard, with travelers warily eyeing each stray shopping bag or briefcase. But some shed those habits as years passed without an attack.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lays flowers in memory of the victims of a terrorist blast at the Lubyanka metro station in Moscow

“I’ve been walking to work through the entire (Moscow) center because I’m not going to ride the metro today,” an unidentified woman told state television Rossiya 24.

RIA news agency said taxi drivers inflated their rates wildly, charging around $100 per journey between some train stations, at least double the usual amount.

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, condemned the attack, and also the taxi drivers.

“This money will do you no good,” he said in televised remarks. “Return it, spend it on a good cause. A desire to cash in on someone’s distress will only bring you grief.”

Death toll rises to 39

North Caucasus