Flowers pile up at makeshift memorial at Moscow bombin

MOSCOW -- A double suicide bombing that killed 15 people at a Moscow rock festival had a chilling effect on the Russian capital Sunday with mourners at a memorial service worrying about safety in the city and President Vladimir Putin postponing a trip.

As flowers piled high at a makeshift memorial at the scene of the blasts, Putin put off traveling to Uzbekistan and Malaysia in a trip that was to start Sunday.

The Kremlin gave no explanation for the delay, although it reflects Putin's sensitivity to accusations he is aloof in times of crisis.

"The goal of this terrorist act is obvious -- to seed fear, suspicion and ethnic intolerance in our society," Putin said in a statement released Sunday to Russian news agencies. "We know that betrayers of their own people and murderers don't have and can't have a future."

Two people died overnight of injuries from the attack, bringing the death toll to 15, including the two female bombers, said Lyubov Zhomova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow Health Directorate.

Of 59 people injured, 38 remained hospitalized, five in critical condition, ITAR-Tass news agency reported Sunday evening.

The Interior Ministry responded to the attacks by stepping up security in Moscow -- where memories are still fresh of the hostage-taking raid on a theater last October that ended in the deaths of 129 hostages and 41 Chechen captors.

Chechen woman bomber

No arrests have been made in Saturday's bombings and no one has yet claimed responsibility, but officials said a passport was found in the blood and debris showing one of the bombers was a Chechen woman.

Relatives of the woman named in the passport had connections to armed groups fighting in Chechnya, First Deputy Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told Russia television.

Student Dmitry Grachyov returned Sunday to the site where he was injured in the arm and leg by ball bearings packed inside the explosives. He laid a bouquet of flowers on a wall near the entrance to the Tushino airfield where the music festival was held.

Grachyov, 17, said he was skeptical that increased security could have prevented the attacks. He was less than 16 feet from one of the blasts at the festival, where he went to relax after completing entrance exams to the Tourism Academy the day before, he said.

"The security measures were tough but you never know when and where a disaster can happen. No matter how careful you are, anything can happen anywhere," he said. "I survived the shock. Now I am scared that it could have been worse."

Russian officials have said guards at the festival entrances were suspicious of the women and prevented them from entering the grounds where some 40,000 spectators were watching a medley of Russian rock bands -- who continued playing even after the attack.

In a memorial service at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, parishioners lit candles and heard a prayer read by priests from Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II for the wounded and dead.

"It has become very scary living in Moscow. There are no guarantees," said Lyudmila, who attended the service and declined to give her last name. "People must change and become better and not allow such horrible things to happen again. I am very scared."

She was not alone. Ekho Moskvy reported that attendance at an annual outdoor beer festival appeared significantly lower Sunday than the previous day, despite sunny weather.

Khusien Isayev, head of the Chechen State Council, played down speculation the attacks may have been tied to Putin's order the day setting presidential elections in Chechnya for Oct. 5.

The Kremlin is staging the elections and also held a recent constitutional referendum in Chechnya as part of efforts to paint the situation there as stabilizing since the latest war in the southern province began in 1999.

In Chechnya on Sunday, four Russian soldiers died and 11 were injured in a helicopter crash, whose cause was not immediately determined. Nine other troops were killed in attacks and land mine explosions over the past day, a Chechen official said.