Authorities said two women are suspected of having detonated bombs strapped to their bodies. The first explosion rocked a train in the Lubjanka station shortly before 8 a.m. The station is located near the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, the Russian spy agency. The second explosion, around 45 minutes later, devastated a train in the Park Kultury station.

Russia Today television showed video footage of a smoke-filled subway station, commuters covered in dust and blood and a demolished red subway train.

It was the worst attack in Moscow since the February 2004 suicide bombings that killed at least 39 people on a subway train.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered security beefed up on subways, train stations and airports across the country, adding that Moscow would "fight terror without hesitation until the end."

Officials said the attackers used explosives equivalent to nearly 9 pounds of TNT at Lubjanka, and 4.4 pounds of TNT at Park Kultury. Authorities launched a hunt for two woman who accompanied the suicide bombers to the station but didn't board the train.

Female militants are nothing new for Russia: They were part of an Islamist group that in 2002 held a Moscow theater audience hostage, killing dozens of people. They were also part of a group that held hostage students and teachers inside a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. The attack killed 334 people, 186 of them children.

Monday's attack was carefully orchestrated. Security service head Alexander Bortnikov said the bombs contained small pieces of metal, making them more deadly to bystanders. The fact that the bombs were detonated in packed metro trains during rush hour underscores the determination to hit as many civilians as possible.

Russian security experts suspect that Islamist extremists from the North Caucasus are behind the attacks, which could be revenge acts for several deadly military operations Russian forces have executed in this region that also includes the war zone Chechnya.

The attacks plunged Moscow's transit system into chaos, with the metro blocked and roads congested. Authorities urged people in Moscow to stay calm and at home.

The Moscow metro, built in the 1930s, has in the past been a popular terror target: Armenian separatists first attacked it in 1997. The Moscow metro's 12 lines service a route length of nearly 190 miles. On a normal weekday, the trains carry more than 7 million passengers.

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