MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Ingush President Yunus-bek Yevkurov is showing signs of improvement, but remains in a serious condition after surviving an assassination attempt, a senior Ingush official said on Tuesday.

In an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio, the republic's senior representative in Moscow, Visan Girei Gagiyev said "There is change for the better."

He said the president's doctors were "optimistic" and "we are very happy."

A Yevkurov press secretary earlier said the president had yet to regain consciousness.

A hospital source in Nazran told RIA Novosti on Saturday that one of the injured, Yevkurov's cousin, Ramzan Yevkurov, died overnight of injuries sustained in Monday's attack near the city of Nazran, the main city in the tiny republic in Russia's North Caucasus.

The president received serious head and internal injuries when his motorcade was hit by an explosion believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. He was airlifted to Moscow after undergoing surgery in Ingushetia.

A bodyguard was earlier reported to have died in the attack.