At least 10 dead in Moscow blast

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MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- A bomb killed 10 people and wounded about 40 at a Moscow market on Monday.

Prosecutors said the attack was likely linked to organised crime, though terrorism could not be ruled out.

Moscow's chief prosecutor Yuri Syomin said the blast was caused by a homemade bomb of a force equivalent to up to 1.2 kg (3 lb) of TNT explosive.

"We are not excluding that it was a terrorist attack ... (but) most likely it was a business or criminal settling of scores that was behind the explosion," he told reporters at the market.

Syomin said the bomb may also have caused a nearby gas canister to explode, giving rise to earlier reports that a gas leak was to blame.

Police detained two people on suspicion of involvement in the bombing, Interfax news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying.

About 40 people were taken to hospital after the blast tore through the market -- a densely packed maze of stalls in an east Moscow suburb dominated by traders from China, Vietnam and ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Earlier reports suggested eight were killed, but two of the wounded later died in hospital, said an Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman.

"It was terrible -- I saw puddles of blood, it was literally everywhere. One body was without a head," said one Central Asian trader, who gave his name as Alik. His white t-shirt was spattered with blood.

"It hit an area near a Chinese cafe. The whole place was soaked in blood. Dozens of wounded squirmed and moaned on the floor," he said.

Footage broadcast by Russia's NTV television showed a two-storey arcade with roof panels blown off and the floor strewn with clothes and plastic packaging.

Prosecutors opened a formal investigation for murder, but not terrorism. It is common practice for Russian prosecutors to launch a terrorism investigation if there is suspicion that was involved.

Groups linked to an anti-Moscow insurgency in Russia's Chechnya region have in the past set off explosions and taken hostages in Moscow, claiming dozens of lives. But the last such attack was more than a year ago.

Russian criminal gangs sometimes use small explosive devices in their struggle for control of markets in Moscow.

The blast happened in the Cherkizovo market complex, made up of rows of shipping containers stacked on top of each other with a makeshift roof covering the space between them.

It has a strongly Asian flavour with traders hawking everything from shoes and clothes to spices and freshly-gutted fish.