Moscow , Russia ( CNN ) -- Three men involved in the Moscow subway bombings in March were killed when they fought back during an attempt to arrest them , the director of the Federal Security Service told the Russian president Thursday . The officials ' meeting was shown on Russian state television . One of the three killed had accompanied the two female suicide bombers from Dagestan to Moscow and guided one of them to the subway , Alexander Bortnikov told President Dmitry Medvedev . `` They offered a bitter armed resistance and were eliminated , '' Bortnikov said . `` Active measures have been taken to hunt down the other members of the gang . '' The twin bombings struck the Moscow metro during morning rush hour March 29 , killing 40 people and wounding more than 80 . Alexander Bastrykin , the head of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General 's Office , said investigators are trying to pursue the organizers of the twin bombings . `` There are grounds to believe that jointly ( with the Federal Security Service ) we will be able to find out who specifically organized those terrorist acts in the Moscow subway , '' Bastrykin told Medvedev at the meeting . Medvedev ordered the investigation to continue , adding , `` Those of them who offer resistance should be eliminated . We should n't spare them . '' Maryam Sharipova and another female bomber , Dzhennet Abdullayeva , detonated their explosives about 40 minutes apart on the day of the bombings . The blasts ripped through the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in central Moscow while an estimated 500,000 people were using the subway system . CNN 's Max Tkachenko contributed to this report .
Russian security services : 3 members of team behind subway attack killed . Two female attackers detonated their explosives about 40 minutes apart . Blasts ripped through Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in Moscow , killing 40 .