MOSCOW Dec 5 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATING...

MOSCOW Dec 5 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING NO. OF CASUALTIES)

The death toll in a suspected suicide bombing onward a commuter train in Russia's rebel Chechnya region has risen to 40 Russia's Interfax novels agency reported.

At least 170 were also injured in the attack, which happened at 8 a.m. just outside the spa town of Yessentuki.

The male suicide bomber was helped from three female terrorists, sum of two units of whom jumped off the train after the blast, according to the Interfax report.

The powerful bomb detonated inside the train's next to the first carriage and the force of the explosion blew family out of it, CNN reported, quoting direction officials.

The train was packed with scholars and workers heading to work.

The Russian prosecutor's office described the explosion as a terrorist act and premeditated slay and launched a criminal investigation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday the attack was meant to ''destabilize the situation in the nation on the eve of parliamentary elections.''

The train succors a resort area in southern Russia between Kislovodsk and Mineralnye Vody in the northern Caucasus Mountains.

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