Russian authorities have confirmed the second Moscow metro suicide bomber as a young computer science teacher from the volatile, mainly Muslim province of Dagestan in the North Caucasus region.

"Maryam Sharipova, born in 1982 … set off an explosive device at the Lubyanka metro station," the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General Office said in a statement. The Committee also said it believed Sharipova was a native of the Dagestani village of Balakhani.

Sharipova's father, Rasul Magomedov, told investigators that he and his wife had immediately recognized his daughter after seeing her photograph on the internet. He specified that Maryam was 28 years old, and has already given a string of interviews in the Russian press saying his daughter was the attacker.

Local connection

Authorities in Moscow made the announcement four days after confirming the identity of the other attacker to hit the capital city's subway system on March 29, 17-year-old Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, also from the Dagestan province.

The dual suicide bombings at the Lubyanka and Park Kultury subway stations killed 40 people, and wounded at least 80 more. It was the deadliest attack on the Russian capital since 2004.

Both women had allegedly been married to Islamist militants; Abdurakhmanova was the widow of a fighter who had been killed by security forces on December 31, while Russian intelligence services believe Sharipova was married to Magedomali Vagapov, an Islamist fighter whose whereabouts is unknown, but who is thought to be alive and active. However, Sharipova's father denied this affiliation in an interview with the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

The Islamist group "Emirate of the Caucasus", which aims to impose an Islamic state based on Shariah law in Russia's North Caucasus region, claimed responsibility for the subway bombings.

msh/AFP/AP
Editor: Rob Turner