After at least 35 people were killed and 130 injured Monday, Jan. 24 in a suicide bombing at Moscow's busiest international airport – Domodedovo - police are hunting for three men and one woman believed to have come from the Caucasian republics, having been alerted Sunday night to a terrorist team heading for an attack. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has cancelled his trip to the economic forum at Davos to deal with the emergency after placing all three Moscow airports and underground hubs on high security alert.
Domodedovo is used by most foreign airlines carrying European and American travelers to and from the Russian capital. The explosion occurred at non-secured zone of the airport. Screws and other metal shrapnel found on the scene.

DEBKAfile: It is not clear how the bombers reached the scene of the attack, whether by incoming flights or as members of the airport staff. Until the Domededov explosion, such terrorist attacks were usually directed at domestic targets, only rarely at foreigners.

The last such attack in Moscow was staged in March 2010 by two women from Dagestan, who blew themselves up at two underground stations in the Russian capital, killing 40 people.

At around about the same time, in London, an incoming airliner from Abu Dhabi was diverted from Heathrow to Stansted airport, flying in with two RAF fighter jets after an incident aboard. The pilot was alarmed enough by the threatening behavior of a British man to radio for a fighter escort. The man was taken into custody.