GROZNY, July 26 (RIA Novosti) - Four senior police officers and one civilian were killed on Sunday in an explosion near a concert hall in the center of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, the republic’s interior ministry said.

An explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber, who had approached the officers on a public square. A law enforcement source in the Southern Federal District said nine people were injured.

The blast occurred 40 meters (130 feet) from the concert hall at 17:00 Moscow time (13:00 GMT). At the time of the attack, there was a crowd of the people on the square.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov condemned the attack, and pledged to defeat wipe out terrorists in the Russian North Caucasus republic.

“These are the death throes of bandits, they have no human face or morals, nothing. These are not people,” he told RIA Novosti.

“I declare that the operation will continue until all of these bandits are completely annihilated. We have sufficient forces and means for this, and also the support of the federal center.”

The last terrorist attack to hit Chechnya was on July 7, when a bomb went off in a trash can, injuring nine people.