New York, DC on High Alert After Moscow Terror Attacks

NEW YORK (March 29) -- Moscow is halfway around the world, but the subway bombings there today hit close to home for New York City and Washington, D.C.

Hours after a terrorist attack killed 38 people on the Moscow metro, the New York and D.C. subway systems were on high alert.

In New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was operating under a "heightened security presence," spokesman Kevin Ortiz told the Associated Press. The city doubled the number of police patrols this morning and sent specially trained anti-terror teams into bus and train stations "in response to the Moscow bombings," the New York City Police Department said in a statement.

Kathy Willens, AP

An NYPD counterterrorism officer watches commuters entering the subway at Grand Central Station Monday. The city's transit authority beefed up security following the bombings in Moscow's subway system.

Washington had already planned to conduct planned anti-terrorism drills today, but the city beefed up its security as well. Jeri Lee, the acting chief of the Metro Transit Police, said bomb-sniffing dogs and "high-visibility" patrols were dispatched throughout the system this morning in response to the attacks in Moscow. "When we opened the Metro system this morning, we did so with heightened security," Lee told The Washington Post.

The Russian attacks are thought to be related to the conflict in Chechnya, and officials say there is so far no evidence that the terrorists who attacked Moscow are related to al-Qaida. But in the United States, cities on the East Coast weren't taking any chances.

"We don't have any information suggesting that it's related [to al-Qaida], but as a precaution we are increasing coverage," New York City police spokesman Paul Browne told Reuters.

But it looks like some jaded New Yorkers didn't even notice the increase in security. Today, Carlos Rivera of Newark, N.J. said his commute seemed normal. "Every day, I see the NYPD out here. I see the dogs. I can't let it affect my life right now," Rivera told the AP. "I don't think about terrorism. I only think about it when I hear about it."