MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti) - Two people were killed and 22 others hospitalized on Tuesday after an explosion at a building in Nazran, in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, a spokesman for the local investigators said.

The explosion, thought to have been caused by a gas leak, occurred in a three-story court bailiffs' office building in the center of the republic's largest city at around 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (07:00 GMT).

A 31-year-old woman who worked for the bailiffs' service died on the way to the hospital and another 27-year-old woman died in hospital, a spokeswoman for Ingushetia's emergencies ministry said.

Four of the victims have critical injuries, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Investigation Committee said.