Russia steps up security after suicide blast at airport (VIDEO)

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has ordered security stepped up at all transportation hubs after an apparent suicide bomber killed up to 35 people at the country's biggest airport Monday.

At least another 130 people were injured in the blast, which according to investigators occurred at 4:32 p.m. local time in the arrivals hall of Domodedovo airport. 

Russian media has called the bombing a terrorist attack, according to Howard Amos, reporting for GlobalPost in Moscow.

Russia Today reported that international flights were being redirected to other Moscow area airports.

Initial reports quoted eyewitnesses saying that two people blew themselves up as people emerged from the international arrivals zone. But others said the suicide bomber was located among a crowd at the international arrivals gate. Another theory is the bomb may have arrived in one of the bags, Russia Today reported.

Video footage showed smoke wafting out of the baggage claim area and airport employees broke down the wall between the main airport and the arrivals zone to allow passengers to escape, according to Ria Novosti. The news agency said the damage caused by the blast was was equivalent of 5 kilograms of TNT.

Russian transport security has been tightened since Moscow suffered its worst attack in six years in March 2010 when two female suicide bombers from Russia's volatile Dagestan region set off explosives in the metro, killing 40 people. 

In August 2004, two planes that took off from Domodedovo airport, Moscow’s busiest, were blown up by female Chechen suicide bombers, killing 88 people.

The Kremlin is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, and rebels have repeatedly vowed they will take their battle to the Russian heartland.

Medvedev has delayed his flight for his trip to the Davos economic forum, scheduled for Tuesday, Medvedev’s press secretary Natalya Timakova said.

In televised remarks, reported by the New York Times, Medvedev said: “At Domodedovo an explosion has occurred, and according to preliminary information it was a terrorist attack. There are dead and there are wounded.”

He admonished officials for their failure to prevent the attack, and ordered the police to boost security at all airports and on public transportation.

Meanwhile, a team from the British Embassy was traveling to the Domodedovo airport, the BBC reported, as British Airways and BMI flights had arrived there shortly before the blast.